Friday, January 18, 2013

Before you make any resolutions, find your one thing.


City Slickers is one of the great comedies of the early 90's and one of the most memorable scenes is when Curley (Jack Palance) explains to Mitch (Billy Crystal) what the secret to life was.  He tells Crystal it is this one thingWatch the scene

That one thing is purpose. And Curley was right, a life lived without purpose is unfulfilling and meaningless.  So before you make any resolutions for 2013, make sure you have a purpose statement and that your resolutions help you fulfill that purpose.  
 I exist to...(purpose statement), therefore I must...(resolutions)

Don't take only Curley's word for it.  God believes in it's importance also. Look at how God instructed the Israelites after they were set free from Egypt.  In Deuteronomy 6:5, God gives the Israelites their purpose statement, their one thing through Moses.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Notice that God not only gives them their purpose, but instructs them to make this statement a prominent part of their daily lives by placing it in significant places, including on their bodies.  God wanted this statement of purpose to be everywhere they looked so they would be reminded of their purpose constantly.  Jesus reminded the Pharisee of this purpose when asked what was the greatest commandment in Matt. 22:36.

I recall when I worked for a radio station in Austin, I walked in on a Jewish co-worker one morning. He had a small box tied on his forehead attached with leather cords around his head.  He explained that this was called a phylactery, a small box in which was placed scripture from Deuteronomy 6.  Jews still take the words in Deuteronomy literally and wear them on their left arm and head.

Moses reminds the Israelites at the end of the 6th chapter that they had once been slaves in Egypt but now they are free and because of that freedom, they now had a new purpose that comes from God.  This is the picture of what he wants to do for us also when we exchange our lives for Christ.  Let us take that purpose and make our one thing so that we will always be reminded to live out that purpose.  Having our family purpose statement prominently placed helps our children to know what their purpose is and that it comes from God.  

What is your one thing?  Your purpose statement?  Does it come from God?  Is it uniquely you?  Is it placed in prominent locations so that you know it by heart and can tell anyone who asks you that I exist to...

God has given us a great model in helping us to define our one thing. So, before you make any resolutions, find your one thing and live it!  

For more on the importance of purpose go to:  

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