It is midnight in Shawnee, Oklahoma, United States of America on January 1, 2004! Today we stand at the beginning of a brand new year! Standing before the entire world are 366 (it is a leap year!) unlived days with a great deal of potential! For many, it is a time to stop and pause to consider the ways we would like to change in the coming year.
Generally, I maintain a short list of personal promises more commonly referred to as “New Year Resolutions”. Actually put together on December 26th and altered six times before January 1st. As I look back over my list, I make a startlingly, discouraging discovery. For the last four years, they look to similar:
1. I will exercise great self-control
2. I will forgive more often
3. I will spend more time in writing
4. I will be more patient
5. I will talk less and listen more
It is clear to anyone, I would think, why I have not been able to cross the
Rubicon with regards to my list. The goals ignore the greatest resource of power for change in my life—God’s presence. They focus instead on me rather than my response to God. They dwell on nebulous external results rather than drawing on the power of Almighty God. No wonder I am not making much if any progress!
So in 2004, I have decided to try something different. Instead of going through the motions of listing the usual list of desirable external results, I have decided to focus on a single goal—cooperating with God by listening to Him through prayer and Biblical readings choosing His way over my way what that may be. to help, I have designed a visual drawing that I can put in my office and in my writing room at home—a bicycle built for two, a tandem, if you will! Just as a tandem is made to function when two people cooperate and pedal together, my Godly tandem is the idea of putting God’s strength and guidance to work through cooperating with God to become a dynamic duo!!!
Will you who read these words join me in a year long effort to cooperate with God? With God as Master, God and I will examine the kinds of daily choices I/we face; my/our way; drag my/our feet or pedal together with God; resist or cooperate.
The first choice is before us!!! We stand at the gate of a New Year—2004. God opens the gate, we choose to walk through. He shows us the way, we follow. Together, we take the first step into this brand New Year. That’s Tandem Power! God’s Power!
Prayer: Abba, Father, as we begin the year 2004, may we grow increasingly aware of Your presence in our lives and truly cooperate with You—choice by choice, minute by minute, day by day!
Read more articles by Stephen A. Peterson or search for articles on the same topic or others.
