1st of January

"I want to be...do...become in 2013. To be fully there in love for others. To do things I have not done. To become a man of deeper faith and joy. There is only death to quitting or being the same. I want to reach beyond what there is and grasp what could be. The memories I participate in making for my kids, wife, friends and family this coming year only come around once...Father, fill me with the Spirit of resurrection this coming year! "

I hate to start this year with plagiarism, so I must give credit to my friend Reg Cox who penned these words.  However, they could have just as easily come from my lips ... I sat down to write a brief prayer to begin this year and as I opened my computer, found these words from Reg.  I claim this prayer for myself as well.

Having just finished watching the Trilogy of the Rings, I am reminded of how "precious" those things of this world often seem and that we often cannot see the forest for the trees!  What a magical world we live in ... and in the midst of the chaos, violence, and grief of this world ... I am reminded that I am a tree in a story about a forest.  And the story of the forest is more important than the story of the tree.

2013