HOW ABOUT TODAY?
How are you going to allow yourself to think and act this New Year, beginning today? How you’ve thought and what you’ve done in the past is unchangeable, and even the existence of a tomorrow for you is uncertain. What is of immediate and utmost importance to you is what you are going to do mentally and physically at this point in time. This is a truth that you need to embrace and let impact you each and every day. While many have New Year’s resolutions pertaining to habits they want to break, here is a habit you want to make — Make sure at the beginning of each and every day in 2020 that you have and maintain a positive attitude about, and take a proactive, enthusiastic approach to, everything you do.
How are you going to allow yourself to think this year, beginning today? Viktor Emil Frankl (1905-1997), an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist survived internment in five of the worst NAZI death camps during the Holocaust. He wrote that during his ordeal he learned that, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.” The Word of God substantiates what Frankl said about the impact that a person’s thinking has on the whole of his life: “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Prov. 23:7a). This is why we have the New Testament admonition that says, “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus” (1 Pet. 1:13). How you and I think at the beginning of, and throughout each new day this year is entirely up to us.
What are you going to do this New Year, beginning today? This New Year will be powerfully productive, satisfying and happy for us if we pay attention every day, not only to the what and why of what we do, but also to the way we do whatever it is that we do. Whatever we do this year, we need to do it thoughtfully, thoroughly and with as much enthusiasm as possible. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might” (Ecc. 9:10a). Paul wrote, in Gal. 4:18, “It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing.” This is something everyone standing in pulpits and sitting in pews is especially meant to understand. And, there’s something to be learned about this from another who said; “A lot of people think enthusiasm or a cheerful spirit is something that falls on you. I want to tell you this with all my heart; the most challenging thing you'll never face in your life is learning every day to be excited about what you're doing.
Grenville Kleiser (1868-1935) wrote, “There are many fine things which you mean to do some day, under what you think will be more favorable circumstances. But the only time that is surely yours is the present, hence this is the time to speak the word of appreciation and sympathy, to do the generous deed, to forgive the fault of a thoughtless friend, to sacrifice self a little more for others. Today is the day in which to express your noblest qualities of mind and heart, to do at least one worthy thing which you have long postponed, and to use your God-given abilities for the enrichment of some less fortunate fellow traveler. Today you can make your life significant and worthwhile. The present is yours to do with as you wish.
Regardless of where you’ve been, where you are, or where it might look like you’re headed, take hold of and get a strong grip mentally on every one of your todays. And, keep a strong, controlling grip, every day on all your actions, including what comes out of your mouth. Do this, one day at a time, each and every day throughout this New Year.
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
—John 8:32