New Year's Resolution(s)

Wednesday, after experiencing vertigo symptoms and being told I may need a Catscan, I went to the ER at Thomas Medical Center in Fairhope, AL. For reasons we still can't understand it took over 6 hours until they gave me the scan and before I saw a doctor. Scan clear, got some meds for the vertigo, but my first 2016 resolution:

Never go back to Thomas Medical Center ER!

While spending that 6 hours in ER, I got to share my experience as a Marine with the Dad of a 4 year Afghanistan Marine vet. And then I got to share my faith and response to faith in crisis with my best friend and roommate here who is going through an intense physical and spiritual struggle himself. New Years resolution:

Go back to Thomas Medical Center but bring a bible next time for several reasons!

Our tendency is to think that when things don't work out the way we want, we won't do them again, unless there is a great reward to try again. If we look at it from an earthly perspective, it may look like a hopeless cause, but if we look through the eyes of God, he may have a purpose for our inconvenience. In fact it may be part of our 2016 resolution:

Use any inconvenience for me as a convenience for the Lord!

In that way, we may have some small idea what the apostles had to face to spread the faith. It would also give us a minor feeling of what our modern day missionaries deal with as they go to far away places to serve. It may also teach us that what is important to a Christian, if we are truly serving, is not how we are treated, but how we treat others as ambassadors of Christ. New Years resolution:

A requirement for serving the Lord is learning how to be inconvenienced!

Yes, it can be joyful to spread the message of faith, but the moments that we have that opportunity may happen in the strangest scenarios. Over the years I have learned this, but it is easy to focus only on the here and now rather than what could be, and we tend to conveniently forget.

My last resolution: Remember that the purpose of me now, is to be the purpose of Him!