OVERFLOW

“And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant. ” Exodus 14:31 (NIV) There is a story about two best friends who graduated from high school and parted ways to their respective universities. Because of their close relationship, they always made an effort to get together once a year at their favorite restaurant and catch up with one another. One year, after they had finished their meal and were pulling out of the restaurant parking lot, their vehicles collided with one another. The damage was not too extensive to either vehicle, but damage did exist. Like good friends, they agreed to reconcile with one another and let it go. In fact, they decided to seal their commitment with a bottle of wine. After the first friend took a drink from the wine bottle, he passed it to his buddy to take a drink. To this, his friend responded, “I will take my drink after the co

“Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the duty of all mankind.” Ecclesiastes 12:13 (NIV) If any of you are like me, you are very busy. Busy with Church, work, personal, familial, and social activities that all compete for your time and to which we find it difficult at times to say no. The danger with this is that we when we choose to do something, we are neglecting another. The problem is not that we are doing something, or even that we are busy. The problem, however, lies in the fact that we can get caught up in our busyness and not accomplish anything at all. The issue is that we are allowing our busyness to hinder us from guarding our hearts and our minds and our relationship with God. Tim Kreider may have explained it best when he wrote “Obviously your life cannot possibly be silly or trivial or meaningless if you are so busy, completely booked, in demand every hour of the day.” Life can get hectic,

                         “I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart.” Psalm 40:8 (NIV) There are many moments in our lives when we will become overwhelmed with the busyness of life. Whether it involves taking care of those you love or working 40 hours a week at your place of employment or something as simple as catching up on a favorite show or working on a side project, sometimes life can seem to be more of a routine and static than dynamic and interesting. Now I’m not saying that doing those things are not important, or even that they should be avoided or neglected. What I am saying is that there is a difference between getting things done and doing things with a purpose. One driving factor in my life is the urgency to do something meaningful. I have noticed that there are activities which are not helpful to me in making me a better person that I was before and I have been putting more of an effort into cutting them out. A discovery that I want to share

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33 (NIV) I am not sure about you, but I just love the New Year. To me it feels like hitting the reset button on everything that has happened and beginning afresh. When you really think about it we reset our clocks (although this occurs daily), our calendars (2013 calendars are useless now), and even ourselves (Developing new habits in terms of New Year’s Resolutions). Maybe last year you had made a commitment to a New Year’s resolution, hopefully you were able to stick with it and accomplish your goal. If you were able to keep with it, then Congratulations, don’t forget to keep making adjustments in order to make yourself better this year. If you were not able to stick with your resolution, Charles Duhigg , in his book The Power of Habits: Why We Do What We Do In Life , has some suggestions to help you make, keep, and sustain new habits. I will summarize them below: