Dan Czaplewski posted on January 24, 2008 10:49
We are nearing the end of the first month of a new year. I have finally stopped needing to turn the “7” of “2007” into an “8” on my checks. I don’t have to think about the year before I write or say each day’s date.
Late January and early February is also the time that I start to forget my new year’s resolutions. January is a month of new beginnings and we’re just about ready to slide back into the old habits.
I have been struck with how advertisers have tuned in to the new beginnings of January. I don’t ever recall seeing so many commercials for various diet plans or health club memberships. The ads for Nutrisystem and Bally’s should start to become less frequent in the next month. Most of us will go back to our old ways and forget the diets or exercise programs by the middle of February. It is just human nature to have great intentions at self-improvement that aren’t realized.
The Gospel of Matthew tells the story of how Jesus began His ministry by describing Christ’s simple message: “repent, the kingdom of heaven is near!” (Matthew 4:17) It is no accident that the word, “repent” is in present tense; it implies that we need to repent and keep on repenting.
More than a new year’s resolution, we need to change, and keep changing, the way we think and act. Christ calls to me daily to change direction. The reason I need that call daily is that, as soon as I have changed direction, I begin to drift off course. In God’s amazing grace, Jesus is with me when I drift just as He is with me when I am on course. In God’s rich mercy, He calls me again today to an ongoing life of changing the way I think and act. Christ loves me to much to leave me as I am, so He calls me again and again to be more like Him.