Sorry in advance for this post being a little long. I had a lot of points! HA!
You'll get that in a few minutes.
I found this thing on Facebook about the "myths about authors." It cracked me up, because I can relate to these points. This is my life, guys. Here's my spin on it:
1. Every author is rich.
HA!
Unless you are a stupendous, self-published author, most of that money goes to taxes, agents, and the publishing house.
2. Authors have a ton of free time.
HAHAHA!
Authors go to a special boot camp where the only thing you can eat for days on end is coffee. Yes, you eat the coffee. Then you learn how to deal with sleep deprivation because the wee hours of the morning are the only time that you can spare from your day to write.
3. Authors have control over their film rights.
Dude. I'm not even going to dignify that with a response.
4. Authors know how well their book is selling.
I'm not published yet, but I'm not sure this is something I would want to keep track of... I can just see myself checking every day and then freaking out to my husband that it sold two books more last week then it did this week.
I'm not sure I can put my husband through that. But we will see. :)
5. Authors have unlimited copies of their books to give away.
Yeah, and they also have the keys to Narnia.
So I've been thinking about resolutions a lot. I mean, it's only natural. It's a new year with new things to do. Or finish from the previous year. Or start from the previous year. Yikes. Anyways, I've never made a lot of New Year resolutions before...
And I started thinking...
Why do we do this?
Wikipedia says that "a New Year's resolution is a tradition in which a person makes a promise to do an act of self-improvement or something slightly nice, such as opening doors for people beginning from New Year's Day."
The Babylonians and Romans made promises to their false "gods" that they would pay their debts and return the junk they had barrowed. In the Medieval era, at the end of the Christmas season, the knights took a vow to re-affirm their commitment to chivalry.
New Year resolutions often consist of the following:
1. Improve physical well-being
2. Improve mental well-being
3. Improve finances
4. Improve career
5. Improve education
6. Try new things
7. Take a special trip
8. Volunteer work
9. Get along better with people
10. Make new friends
11. Spend quality time with family
12. Improve your relationship with God
13. Be more involved in sports or physical activities
Bet you guys weren't expecting a history lesson today.
So I decided, for possibly the first time EVER, to make some New Year resolutions!
1. I resolve to not slow down to unreasonable speeds when someone is tail-gating me with their headlights on high beam.
2. I resolve to learn the name of a sports team. Like for real.
3. I resolve to learn fencing. Eventually. (I live in the sticks, guys! No one teaches fencing around here.)
4. I resolve to push out of my comfort zone in my writing career.
5. I resolve to pitch a NEW book at the ACFW conference this September.
6. I resolve to try some new foods.
7. I resolve that those new foods will never be squid. Not again.
8. I take back number 6, making number 7 irrelevant.
9. I resolve to volunteer to do the laundry at least once. (We don't own a washer and dryer.)
10. I resolve to clean out my closet.
11. I resolve to buy a new book every week. :)
12. I resolve to maybe learn how to cook something new. (Not raw chicken, mother!)
13. I resolve to clean out my e-mail inbox, and bring the unread number of e-mails down from 1,400+ to something more manageable.
14. I resolve to find an awesome new youth group game for a group of lovable kids and teens who are easily board.
15. I resolve to get in shape this year.
16. I resolve to truly, absolutely, and completely go further in my relationship with God then ever before.
Which leads me into the God stuff that we are going to talk about today. :)
So do you remember falling in love, but you were unsure if they other person loved you back? You were all nervous, fidgety, and self-doubting. Pulling at your shirt sleeves, looking away really fast, and then looking back as you try to glimpse into their soul to see what they haven't shared with you. All you knew was one thing...
You wanted to be chosen.
Well, have you ever stopped to consider that God wants to be chosen?
Our lives are a big, epic love story with God. It goes either one of two ways. We reject the Lover of our soul. Or we pick God.
Why do you think God gave us free will? He's never wanted to force Himself on us. He has always wanted us to choose Him.
In Matthew 19:16-22, we see the story about the rich, young ruler. This guy swaggered up to Jesus. (Maybe not swaggered, but it's a fun word.) He wanted to know how to save his own soul. So he asked Jesus what he had to do to have eternal life.
I just picture Jesus talking with this young man with a raised eyebrow like "What have they been teaching kids here?" and sadness in His eyes. He knew this guy wasn't going to choose God.
When Jesus told him to keep the commandments, he wanted to know which ones. When Jesus told him to keep all of them, he said he'd done all of that. What was he missing? When Jesus told him to sell all that he had, give it to the poor, and then follow Him, the young man couldn't do it. Despite the fact that Jesus said he would have treasure in Heaven, the man's love for his earthly treasures out-weighed everything else.
This rich, young ruler wasn't motivated by his love for God. He was motivated by his love for himself. And at the end of this encounter, you see him choose himself. This epic love story of our lives is a serious of choices like the one the rick, young ruler made. Big and little. Every day we make choices to put aside us, our desires and our motives, and choose God first.
What choices have we made today where we put God first? This new year is just starting out, guys. Make a resolution that you will choose God more. Choose the one, true God. Choose the Lover of your soul. Choose your Redeemer. Don't put that off until next year. Make it your goal this year to fall even more in love with God.
I hope you guys all had an awesome first month of 2015. I will see you in February.
Hmmm...
Man, I sure numbered a lot of things in this blog post.
17. I resolve to not...number so much...next...
Nope. Can't make that promise.
See you guys on February 1st! :)
V. Joy Palmer
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