Miscellaneous Tidbits

Greetings, blog readers! I'm close to having pictures ready to share with you from the holidays, but it's too late to dive in to that tonight. However, I wanted to post a quick blog for you because of today's date. I read in the paper earlier that today, January 2, 2010, is a palindrome. What is a palindrome, you ask? It is a word or number that reads the same backward as it does forward, which means 01/02/2010 is still...01022010. Cool, huh?

I want to leave you with something to ponder that I read a few days ago from the 268 Generation blog. Passion 2010 is happening this weekend in Atlanta and Louie posted a prayer a day for 16 days as people prepared to come. While specific for Passion 2010, they were totally applicable for us all as we head into a new year. I wanted to share the one from Day 13 which he titled "Humbly".

If God spoke the Universe into existence, and sent His Son into that world on a rescue mission of love–a mission He knew would cost Him His life and purchase ours–then let’s come to Passion 2010 carrying a hefty dose of humility in our hearts…that attitude that says “You are God and we are not.”

Humility is simply seeing God. Pride, on the other hand, is seeing ourselves. No one has ever had a glimpse of God and not ended up closer to the floor. He is glorious and massive and radiant and holy and imposing and awe-inspiring and intimidating. Yet, God somehow wedged all that into a Bethlehem manger in Christ so He could wrap us in His arms. Sin continually and deceptively puffs us up, making us think we’re larger than life, stealing our ability to appreciate all that He is and all we are in Him.

So, arriving at Passion 2010 let’s let the re-sizing begin.
Let’s tread gently.
Come reverently.
Loved and treasured by God, let’s insist less and say “yes” more.
Let’s not stiffen our necks, let’s soften our hearts.
Why act like we know it all already, let’s come open to whatever He has to say.
Let’s lay down our agendas and figure out where we fit in His.
Let’s surrender first, before He even asks.
Let’s stop assuming.
And demanding.
And ignoring.
And running.
Let’s bow.
And bend.
And pause.
And honor.
Let’s lift Him high and bow down low.

This was a great encouragement for me as a new year begins and our adventure seems to be ramping up a few notches again. Stay tuned - while the best might not be yet to come, it promises to be an eventful year!