The Best Version of me.

Ringing in a new year is always exciting in a way but also leaves me in a sort of contemplative funk the next day. After the final countdown, the ball drop and old lang syne, after planting the big kiss and hugging all my friends, and after the fireworks die down and I’m left picking up confetti and empty glasses from my living room floor, I find myself plopped down on a couch next to a fire and a semi-stale gingerbread cookie wondering, “Now what?”

There is a renewed sense of energy and life that comes with a new year. To me, it’s reminiscent of throwing a new set of batteries in your flashlight. You pop the freshies in, turn it on and it shines brightly. The beam of light is brilliant and strong and pierces the darkness like a knife. But then, the slow fade. You can sense it coming, right? You turn it on and it just doesn’t have the same brightness about it. It’s beginning to dull and dim and then you realize that you’d better only use it in dire emergencies at this point or it will die out lest you find some new batteries in a hurry. 

The best version of me can usually be found in the first month or so of a new year. It’s when I get my new batteries. It’s the time of year that I have the most confidence in my ability to be better. (Whatever that means….) It's when I feel I have the most momentum. I’m trying to change this but it’s around this timeframe that I tell everyone who asks that I don’t have any New Year’s resolutions because I fear that if I speak them out loud, someone may actually remember and hold me accountable to that thing. Yet, the truth is, I actually do resolve to do some things differently or better or more often or less often, etc… at the start of a new year and sometimes I even make progress! For example, I determined at the beginning of the year to do one push-up for every day of the year. Doesn’t sound like a big deal at first but those days begin to add up! So, on the last day of the year, I cranked out 365 push-ups (having done 364 the day before and 363 the day before that and so on…). Needless to say, it felt really good to accomplish this goal. This year, I’m starting in on a new fitness goal (happy to share if you want to hit me up offline about it;) and who knows, maybe I’ll be successful again. Bottom line, I think we all need a challenge. Something attainable yet difficult enough that it requires real fortitude and determination to complete. 

While sitting around the beach fire in Carmel-by-the-Sea this past New Year’s Eve, my brother in law encouraged all of us to be mindful of the brevity of life and to wring everything we can out of each day we’ve been given. I love this! I want to live mindful of this. As I get older, the weight of these words bear down on me even more intensely because my own mortality is becoming more real to me with each passing year. 

How can you and I avoid the fizzle factor? How can we prevent our batteries from running out and our bright light from becoming dim? I want the same level of enthusiasm, hope and fervor I have right now on the front end of this year to carry me to December 31st. Momentum. I believe the best way to ensure success to this regard is to make it a personal discipline to renew our minds each day and align ourselves with the will of The Father. We need to lean into God, especially when times are good! Dependency on God is not a sign of weakness. Just the opposite! Dependency on God is the most solid and sound posture a man can take. If we are to lead and love like real men, we need God’s help and we must humble ourselves, push down our pride, and let Him who made all and is above all, be the source of our daily “battery pack” or we will certainly dull and dim because the power of darkness is strong without the Light. 

When the clock strikes midnight and a new year begins, we experience a moment in time. When we align ourselves daily with God's heart and choose life over death, love over hate, courage over fear, humility over pride and service over selfishness, we experience MOMENTUM and that will carry us the distance.

Let us consider this prayer from the book of Ephesians 3:14-20

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Let’s go get it!