A NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION

"And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

- Joshua 24:15 (NKJV)

As the New Year approaches, I, like so many Americans find myself reflecting back on the year that is drawing to an end and making note of the changes I would like to make in my life. However, even as I do this, one simple but powerful phrase from Joshua 24:15 keeps playing over and over in my mind, "But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." I meditated on these words for several weeks and the message revealed to me is, "Why are you making empty resolutions? Why do you concern yourself with empty desires and striving?" This is when it hit me; the only thing I desire to focus on this year is serving the LORD! I know that if I purpose in my heart each and every day of this week, this month, and this year, to serve the LORD that everything else will fall into place. There is no need to have a long list of "New Year's Resolutions." So, I am not waiting for the clock to strike midnight or the ball to drop in Times Square to ring in my resolutions with the New Year. I have decided that beginning today, I will purpose in my heart every morning when I awake that I will serve the LORD today.

The New Year is just around the corner, it is time for you to choose for yourself. Will you choose to serve the gods of this world? Or, will you choose to serve the LORD? As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!

COACH'S CALL TO ACTION

• What resolutions are you making this year?
• As you look over your resolutions, take note of how they reflect on your priorities in life...the god you serve.
• Choose for yourself this day whom you will serve and modify your resolutions accordingly.

Copyright 2009 Radiant Sun Life Coaching. All rights reserved.

WOE TO HIM WHO IS ALONE WHEN HE FALLS

Two are better than one, Because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, For he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; But how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

-Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 (NKJV)

“But woe to him who is alone when he falls, For he has no one to help him up.” (Eccl. 4:10) As I read these words today, I could not help but think of the medic alert commercials that came out several years ago with an elderly woman who had fallen in her house and though she cried out, “Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up,” there was no one there to respond; no one to care for her in her time of need…she was alone.

Have you ever fallen and not been able to get up? I have a couple of times and it is a terrifying experience…especially when you are alone. A few years ago I fell in the church parking lot while walking in for Sunday morning service with my family. When I fell, I injured my knee and I was in so much pain that I could not get up. I was blessed that day, not because I fell, but because I was surrounded by my family. My husband and my brother were there to lift me up off the pavement and carry me inside and my brothers and sisters in Christ were there to care for my injury. After this fall, my knee was very weak and it has taken several years to rehabilitate. Within those years of rehabilitation, there were many occasions where it gave out on me, frequently on the stairs. There was this one instance in particular that I doubt I will ever forget; my husband was at work and my children had just left to spend the day with Grandma and Grandpa, as I was walking down the stairs in my house, my knee gave out and my other foot caught on my pant leg and I tumbled down the stairs. There I sat, in a heap on my floor crying out in agony, unable to stand or even move due to the pain screaming through my leg. It was only a few minutes before the pain subsided enough for me to be able to pull myself off of the floor, but those few minutes seemed to last forever as terrifying thoughts raced through my mind while I considered how long I might be “stuck” there on that floor in pain with no one to help me.

A fall, whether it is physical or spiritual, can leave us in a heap on the floor crying out in agony, unable to pick ourselves up. We need our brothers and sisters in Christ to pick us up when we cannot stand, to encourage us and stand beside us in battle. We are all in the trenches fighting a battle, not of flesh and blood but a spiritual battle; wrestling against principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this age and spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12) “Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”(Ecclesiastes 4:12) We are so much stronger as the Body of Christ, working together, than one member standing alone. We must encourage one another, pick each other up and help one another to stand against the wiles of Satan. Ask the Lord to show you who needs encouragement, who needs you to pick them up off the pavement, who needs you to stand beside them in battle today.

COACH'S CALL TO ACTION

• Ask the Lord to show you who needs encouragement, who needs you to pick them up off the pavement, who needs you to stand beside them in battle today.
  
• Walk in faithful obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit as He directs your paths.

Copyright © 2009 Radiant Sun Life Coaching. All rights reserved.

JUST AN ANIMAL?

I said in my heart, “Concerning the condition of the sons of men, God tests them, that they may see that they themselves are like animals.” For what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them; as one dies, so dies the other. Surely, they all have one breath; man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity. All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust. Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, which goes down to the earth? So I perceived that nothing is better than that a man should rejoice in his own works, for that is his heritage. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him?

-Ecclesiastes 3:18-22 (NKJV)

What makes man different from any given animal? As Solomon reveals here in Ecclesiastes 3, when you approach life from a humanistic perspective, man is nothing more than an animal. We live, we die. From this point of view, there is nothing to look forward to, nothing to live for; life is just monotony. Therefore, “nothing is better than that a man should rejoice in his own works, for that is his heritage.” (Ecclesiastes 3:22)

As I was reading Ecclesiastes 3 today, I was struck by Solomon’s comparison of man to animals and I could not help but think of what life would be like as my cat, Smoky. Basically it comes down to this: I eat, I sleep, I sleep, I sleep, I play a little, I get some lovin’, and so on day in and day out. At first glance this may seem like a blissful existence as there are few worries, but I ask you this, if this was all there is to life every day of your life for your entire life and then one day it just ends, you die and turn to dust; is it really all that appealing? From all the self-help books out there on purpose and helping the lost find their’s, I would think it obvious that man is different than animal. In the beginning when God was creating man, He didn’t lump us in with the other animals; man was set apart and man specifically was created in the image of God, according to His likeness. (Genesis 1:26) We long to find our purpose in life, our reason for existing; we search for a job or career that gives us a sense of purpose all so we can fill that space inside us to make us feel whole. That space, that emptiness we have inside longing to be filled is part of our design and was put there by God for “He has put eternity in their hearts.”(Ecclesiastes 3:11) Though many things may fit into that emptiness; only One will fill it. That emptiness can only be filled completely with Jesus Christ; that purpose we seek comes from Him. This is how we were designed by the Father so that we may be complete and whole in the Son.

So what do we have if we don’t have Christ? We end up in a place where “nothing is better than that a man should rejoice in his own works, for that is his heritage.” (Ecclesiastes 3:22) We work to possess that which our heart desires and that which we possess is our only heritage. Look around you, our world is filled with people living an empty existence; focused on building up possessions in this world, living in the here and now. It may seem appealing from the outside, but don’t let appearances deceive you; it is all vanity, an empty existence. “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Mark 8:36) “For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame – who set their mind on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.” (Philippians 3:18-21) For both animal and man alike, our time on this earth is temporary; but for all of mankind, eternity awaits. The choice is yours, the choice is mine…will you, will I spend eternity in communion with the Father in Heaven or separated from Him in Hell?

COACH'S CALL TO ACTION

• For what purpose where you created, what is the reason for your existence?

Copyright © 2009 Radiant Sun Life Coaching. All rights reserved.

GRASPING FOR THE WIND

Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure. For my heart rejoiced in all my labor; And this was my reward from all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done And on the labor in which I had toiled; And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun.

-Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 (NKJV)

Grasping for the wind; have you ever tried to catch the wind in your hands on a windy day? Try as you might, the wind cannot be contained in your hand; it is futile to try. Solomon’s pursuit of pleasure was unmatched; he did not deny himself any desire but indulged in every delight of this world. At the end of a lifetime of living after the desires of his flesh, with what does he equate his riches, his extravagant life? He equates it all with grasping for the wind; it’s all vanity, futile, hopeless, and worthless.

The other day as I was reorganizing the kid’s playroom, I was struck by the abundance of toys they had accumulated over just the past year from birthdays, Christmas, etc. At that moment I was taken back to my childhood. As I reflected back, I remembered a little red, white and blue toy box in our living room that housed all of our toys. Every toy that we owned (outside of the outdoor sporting equipment) was located in that modest little toy box and yet, I don’t recall ever really wanting more. I have such wonderful memories of my childhood, none of which involve a particular toy. In fact, a regular occurrence and one of my best memories was playing capture the flag outside with the neighbor kids which required the use of an old t-shirt that had been torn into rags.

We live in a culture today that encourages us to indulge our fleshly desires. The Law of Attraction, an overwhelmingly popular idea that would have you believe that you can attract anything you want into your life; anything your heart desires can be yours. So what, what if it’s true? What if you can attract everything your heart desires, what if you can possess it all? What then? Will you ever be satisfied, will you ever be content? When our focus is on the pleasures of this world, we are never satisfied, we are never content with what we have; there is always something newer, bigger, and/or better on the horizon. Solomon had built himself houses, planted vineyards, made himself gardens and orchards and water pools, acquired servants and singers and musical instruments of all kinds, gathered for himself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and provinces; he had more herds and flocks than anyone else in Jerusalem. (Ecclesiastes 2:4-8) Yet, at the end of his life, Solomon saw it all for what it is; vanity, empty.

This world is filled with people grasping for the wind and it is easy to become one of them. It is time for Christians, starting with me, to stop buying in to the wisdom of the world, it offers nothing. We must start relying on the wisdom of God and His Word. We are called to be salt and light, isn’t it time we stopped grasping for the wind with everyone else? “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Mark 8:36)

COACH'S CALL TO ACTION

• In what ways have you been grasping for the wind in your life?
  
• What would it look like to stop grasping for the wind?
  
• What steps must you take to have and keep your focus on the eternal?

Copyright © 2009 Radiant Sun Life Coaching. All rights reserved.