Glass half empty or half full? Of course, both. And yet as we begin a new year, I am amazed by how many people around me are "stuck" either wholly in the past or wholly in the future. A dear friend's father has severe Alzhemiers and he is of course "stuck" in his childhood. It is very sad to witness and hard to bear daily. But many of us have spiritual Alzheimers. We hang on to old hurts and nurse them rather than to chose forgiveness and move forward. We feed old habits and use them as excuses for our lack of growth and maturity. We harbor old thoughts and desires like Halloween candy found covered in pocket fuzz, refusing to give them up or laughing that they don't matter as we continue to cling to them. The future, the New year, the new morning each day is fresh and clean, full of sweet aroma after a storm. So it is vital that we see that the glass is
both half empty and half full; the old year needs to cause us reflection as the new year causes us to be hopeful. The word "remember" appears at least 250 times in the Bible. God gave commands to His people over and over to remember - what He had done, what He will do, how we have disobeyed, what disobedience leads to, how He forgives and shows mercy, how wonderful things can be if we obey, etc.
If your parent disciplined you as a child, and you could not remember or chose to forget, when/what/why they disciplined you, would you have grown into the person you are today? And yet how remiss we are to remember and ponder the workings of our Loving, Merciful Father. So this week has been one for us to not only begin anew, but to look at the "whys" of our changes, the reasons that we should want to grow. Not to be stuck in the past or hold on to old sins, but because of those old sins begin anew to desire the true glass of water - living water - to overflowing.
"Lord, today and each new day, help me to remember your mercies and desire your new life to overflowing. Help me forgive past hurts, leave old habits behind, retrain my heart and mind to dwell on You and not on my selfish passions. Give me a sense of newness, eternity, and hope straight from your Loving Word. Purge me of all fleshly desires and replace them with an intense burning for Your presence. Amen."
Some time back I read a book entitled "Waking the Dead" by John Elderidge. The scriptures he quoted really spoke to me about how I need to seriously make sure that my heart, my whole heart, not just my head or part of my heart, is revived by the Lord. Then this morning in Matthew 18 I was reminded of Mr. Elderidge's chapter about becoming like little children. Now revival and being child-like may be two different topics to you but it is clear to me that the main reason I don't allow Christ to rule in my whole heart is my unwillingness to become child-like. Time and again the absolute best things that have happened in my life have been when I have turned over control to the Lord. So why do I fight what I know is the best? My insane desire to be in control, to be the decision-maker, to be the thinker, to be... well, un-child-like. Untrusting. Unyielding. 
So today begins (again) another day that I will pray for that child-like faith. And today (again) HE will be there to awaken my heart from its cold slumber of selfish sleep. Praise the LORD - every day HE will be there to re-awaken it as long as I live. And maybe somehow each day will take me one step closer to being a child - a child who willingly, unhesitatingly, trusting and obeying without question places my heart and my path in His nail-scarred hands.
