C.S. Elston

Author, Husband, Home Cook, Fan

A Servant’s Heart

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Selfishness is demolished when we take on the form of a servant.

Jesus Christ is the ultimate example of what we are supposed to be. If the God of Heaven can humble Himself and become a man . . . If a sinless life can take on the sin of the world . . . If perfection can love imperfection . . . If the King of Kings can live as a servant . . . How can we complain about anything that God would ask of us?

As a sophomore in high school, I joined the juniors and seniors on a trip to an orphanage in Mexico for eight days of serving. We built a church for the community and played with children who had experienced more suffering in their first four or five years than I will likely ever know. Yet, they had as much, if not more, joy in their hearts than I did. It teemed out of them in a way that you couldn’t miss, even if you tried to.

During our trip, we visited with an old man who felt the call of God on his life to sell all that he had, which was only a few pigs, and to use his land to build a church out of cardboard boxes. He had done as God told him. I cannot even guess at how long it had been since he had showered or changed his clothes but, his heart was pure and Christ was pouring out of it.

Coming from an upper middle class background, that trip was a life changing experience for me. It taught me about humility and about joy in suffering. In short, it was a giant stepping-stone in the journey I am on to become the servant that God has called me to be. The first step is demolishing selfishness. It’s a step that has to be taken all over again each day of my life. If you’re a Christian, you are called to be on this same journey. We all are. The only difference between us is that God allows each of us to get there by travelling on different roads.

How The Christian Walk Is Like American Football

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I highly doubt that I’m the first to make this connection but, it struck me this morning, as I wrapped up my morning devotions and checked the schedule to see what time my University of Washington Huskies would be playing the Colorado Buffaloes this weekend, how much the Christian walk is like football. To some, that statement may sound a bit silly. But, to others, like myself, who has loved the game of football his whole life, it puts a few simple truths into relatable terms.

 

Football is all about executing plays. In order to do that properly, a football player must start by getting to know the playbook. The player goes to work studying the book full of plays drawn up by his coach. He memorizes them. He practices them. He gets to know that playbook inside and out, backwards and forwards.

 

For the Christian, that playbook is the Bible, the holy scriptures, the very Word of God. We need to go to work studying, memorizing, and practicing the principles laid out for us by our holy and righteous Creator. We need to learn that book every bit as much as the football player must learn his. After all, it contains the foundations for our victory.

 

Next, both the football player and the Christian need to know which play is being called. The football player must look to the sidelines and read the signal. The Christian must go to God in prayer. In both cases, allowing the One calling the plays to do the majority of the communicating is a key factor.

 

The final event that needs to take place before it’s time to execute plays is the huddle. This is where the football player makes sure the team is all on the same page. Otherwise, you could wind up with eleven guys trying to run eleven different plays. Unity is essential for a football team. The same is true for Christians. For us, the huddle is about finding an uncompromising, truth-preaching and truth-practicing church that relentlessly puts God’s ways ahead of popularity and world acceptance, and then plugging into it with zeal and firm commitment.

 

Once we’ve studied the playbook, received the play call, and had our huddle, we’re ready to run the play. Some plays will be harder than others. Some days we’ll lose yardage. But, the only path to victory is to repeat the process until the end of the game. Even if you’re down thirty-five to nothing at half-time, keep trusting your coach. Go back to that playbook. Receive His call. Get in the huddle. Execute the next play. Who doesn’t love a good comeback story?

 

Hut-hut, hike!

 

Common Design?

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I thought, this week, instead of a typical blog post, I would post a small excerpt from the first novel I wrote and had published, “The Four Corners.” I’m currently writing the sequel, “The Four Corners of Darkness,” so my head is in that space right now. The following is approximately the first page of a chapter entitled “A World Aware” and it occurs almost half way through the book. My hope with this post is that it can spark some conversation. I’ll paste, below the excerpt, links to where you can find me on various social media platforms. I’d love to know what kind of thoughts this excerpt generates about both the scientific and spiritual implications.

Without further adieux:

Like a plant, every person begins as a seed. Each seed contains the genetic make-up, passed on through the generations of family members in the lineage of the father who produced that seed.

It is then placed in the mother’s womb where it adds the genetic make-up from her lineage. The mother of all plants is the earth itself and, therefore, that womb is the soil the earth provides. For people, the womb is inside the mother’s abdomen.

Both wombs provide protection from the outside environment so that the seed can grow and start the process of becoming what it was created to be. Inside both wombs, the seed is provided with the nourishment required to mature into the plant or person it needs to become before it is ready to enter the outside world.

However, once the plant or person has entered that world, it is not meant to be detached from its mother just yet. The plant still has its roots embedded in the womb it came from and the person, while not physically, still does as well.

Both continue receiving nourishment from their mother. The plant still gets it directly from its mother’s womb. The person, however, can then be fed by either parent. Or, even another person.

In the outside world, the protection of the mother’s womb has significantly decreased. Both plants and people are still growing into what they were created to be but that growth is determined by additional factors. Not the least of which, physically for the plant and spiritually for the person, is how much exposure they have to both the light and the dark.

 

 

Excerpt from “The Four Corners” used with permission from Electric Quill Press, LLC.

 

Find C.S. Elston on: Twitter – @cselston; Facebook – facebook.com/cselston; LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/cselston

Summer Sabbath — Update

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Technically, autumn (fall) doesn’t start for almost three weeks. But, at least around here, school is starting back up this week and my wife and I are nearly over our “Where did it go?” shock and are starting to settle back into our normal routine that applies to all of the months outside of summer and the Thanksgiving through New Year’s stretch. So, I thought I would post an update to my June 9th“Summer Sabbath” plan.

The idea was to treat this summer as a sabbath season. My thought was that both the Sabbath and summer are already similar in the way that they are meant for rest in the sense of relaxation, connection and renewal. So, I wanted to spend this summer intentionally slowing things down and making it a season of connecting with family and friends, growing closer to the Lord, and recharging my proverbial batteries. I was encouraging others to do the same in the hopes that, by the time autumn rolled around, we would feel more prepared to tackle the rest of life than we had in years and, perhaps, we would decide that a reasonable amount of Sabbath should be part of our lives seven days a week and three hundred sixty-five days a year.

Well, here’s the update. I did spend a lot of time with family and friends this summer and it was wonderful. I also feel like I continued to grow closer to the Lord over the season. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that I failed miserably on the “slow down” portion of my goal. In fact, summer is always a season when my wife and I get a lot of exercise and we barely had time for that. This summer was so packed, so full . . . I guess that’s why we feel like we practically blinked and missed it. It’s nice that it was full of so many lovely things but, I do regret not slowing things down a bit more. Quite a bit more.

Looking back on it, I think one of the main things that crowded the calendar, is that my wife and I both have trouble saying no to things. We need to give ourselves permission to say no even if we don’t have a good excuse. We don’t lie, which makes saying no a little more difficult than it is for some people. If they don’t have an excuse, they just make one up. We won’t do that. But, we need to learn to say no just because it’s the healthy thing to do for us. That’s okay. That’s actually all the excuse we should need.

Maybe next year. In the meantime, practice makes perfect. We’ll try our hand at saying no a little more often. And, as far as the general Sabbath idea, we still have Sundays . . .

9 Rules from Chris Pratt, “Generation Award” Winner

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I don’t often quote or promote celebrities but, Chris Pratt is not just any celebrity and he recently did something worth quoting. Sure, he’s an awesome actor who has been in some really cool movies. And, yes, I’m a little partial to the guy because we grew up in the same area. Also, while working on a screenplay about a decade or so ago, I sat one table over from him and his then girlfriend, Anna Farris, at a coffee shop called Priscilla’s which was nearly across the street from the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, CA. I didn’t want to bother them, so we never spoke, which makes it a far less interesting story.

However, and far more importantly, Pratt accepted the “Generation Award” from MTV a few nights ago and took the opportunity to do something we don’t see often enough at awards shows. While some celebrities have been using these shows to promote political or social causes, Pratt used the platform he has been blessed with to offer some practical advice that could actually make people’s lives better by sharing his “9 Rules from Chris Pratt, ‘Generation Award’ Winner.”

After thanking his family and the fans, he told his audience, “This being the ‘Generation Award’ I’m going to cut to the chase and I am going to speak to you, the next generation. Okay?  I accept the responsibility as your elder. So, listen up.”

Here’s a transcript:

  1. “Breathe. If you don’t, you will suffocate.”
  2. “You have a soul, be careful with it.”
  3. “Don’t be a turd. If you’re strong, be a protector. And, if you’re smart, be a humble influencer. Strength and intelligence can be weapons and do not wield them against the weak. That makes you a bully. Be bigger than that.”
  4. “When giving a dog medicine. Put the medicine in a little piece of hamburger – they won’t even know they’re eating medicine.”
  5. “Doesn’t matter what it is, earn it. A good deed . . . reach out to someone in pain, be of service. It feels good and it’s good for the soul.”
  6. “God is real. God loves you. God wants the best for you. Believe that. I do.”
  7. “If you have to poop at a party, but you’re embarrassed because you’re going to stink up the bathroom, just do what I do. Lock the door. Sit down. Get all the pee out first. Okay? And then, when all the pee is out, poop, flush, boom. You minimize the amount of time the poop is touching the air because if you poop first, it takes you longer to pee and then you’re peeing on top of it, stirring it up, the poop particles create a cloud, goes out, and then everyone in the party will know that you pooped. Just trust me. It’s science.”
  8. “Learn to pray. It’s easy and it’s so good for your soul.”
  9. “Nobody is perfect. People are going to tell you you’re perfect just the way you are. You’re not. You’re imperfect. You always will be. But, there is a powerful force that designed you that way. And, if you’re willing to accept that, you will have grace. And, grace is a gift. And, like the freedom that we enjoy in this country that grace was paid for with somebody else’s blood. Do not forget it. Don’t take it for granted. God bless you.”

Here’s the video:

Pratt did an excellent job of mixing humor with important advice and, while we’re getting better quality Christian movies out of Hollywood these days, Pratt’s overall message, which I would break down into two parts, was not one we hear coming out of Tinsel Town very often:

  1. You have a soul. Treat it well. Two of the best ways to do that are communicating with God through prayer and treating others well.
  2. You’re imperfect but that’s okay. The God who designed you loves you and wants to show you grace.

When is the last time you remember a celebrity using their award acceptance speech to remind the audience who they are, who God is, and, most importantly what can happen when they know Him? Not a single memory of such an event comes to mind. That’s why this was worth quoting. It’s worth passing along.

While most celebrities are trying to get us to look at them and admire them, Pratt took the stage and told us to look at the God who bought our soul’s freedom with the blood of His Son and to accept that freedom. Jesus is the “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” No one is a bigger deal than Jesus Christ and nothing is more important than how you respond to that fact. After all, at His name, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord.

And, because he is using his platform to make that known, I just became an even bigger Chris Pratt fan than I was already. I was going to see Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom anyway but, maybe now I’ll have to see it twice.

 

Time Is NOT Money

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The old adage that “time is money” is dead wrong. Sure, they have things in common. For example, they can be spent both wisely and foolishly. They can be used selfishly or to serve others. And, in both cases, some of us have more than other people.

However, the differences far outweigh the similarities. Money can be saved up to be spent at a later date. Time, on the other hand, is spent with or without our consent and no matter how hard we try to keep it from happening, ultimately expires for each and every one of us.

Time is far more precious than money. It’ a non-renewable resource. How are you spending yours? I purposely made this post short so I didn’t waste any of it.

If I were you, I’d spend the time I spared you wisely . . .

People Pleasing

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“Those who please all men at all times ought deservedly to look on themselves with suspicion.” — Johann Albrecht Bengel

There is nothing wrong with wanting to make people happy and it is completely natural to want to be well-liked. However, the goals of pleasing everyone and remaining someone who is honest both with themselves and those around them cannot co-exist. For me, and most of us, I presume, the latter is the priority.

As a Christian, my absolute highest priority is actually trying to please God. And, if I’m being two-faced, I’m failing in that primary goal. Two-faced people are not authentic people and God demands authenticity. After all, authenticity is truth and Jesus told us that the truth shall set us free. If pleasing my God is my top priority, I must be striving to please Him in every conversation I have. Therefore, I can’t be one person with my church friends and another with my school or work friends. I have to remain that God-pleasing person in every public situation, as well is in private. My inner person must match up with my outer person, always. That’s authenticity.

As a writer, trying to please everyone is the kiss of death. Different people like different things. Therefore, I write things that I would enjoy reading. When I do, I accept that some people will also enjoy the things that I do. I also accept that some people will not. That’s okay. Unfortunately, I even have to accept the fact that there will be people who actually hate what I do. That can be tough to swallow but, when it comes right down to it, it’s natural and, therefore, it’s okay, too. After all, if I write a piece about Jesus being the Son of God, I can’t expect an atheist to appreciate it. And, if I write something to try and get everyone to love it, chances are very few people are even going to like it. I’ll take 100 five-star reviews and 100 one-star reviews over two hundred three-star reviews because I know 100 people are going to want to read what I write next.

At the end of the day, the truth is, what I really want to do is to write things that please God. If He likes it, I’m happy. If He can use it, He’ll guide the right people to it. In other words, I must only strive to please God at all times and He’ll take care of the rest.

What the World Needs Now

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After seeing the title of this post, you’re probably singing “is love, sweet love” in your head. Or, maybe you’re not keeping it inside and you’re belting out the 1965 Jackie DeShannon hit to either the delight or severe dismay of those around you. Perhaps you’re by yourself, in which case I say go ahead and belt it out. I’ve convinced myself that God loves the sound of my voice, even if no one else does. I’m sure the same is true for you.

Love, sweet love is synonymous with how I would finish that sentence with or without the song. After all, God is love. And, we’re not seeing enough love these days, are we? The culture seems to be in a state of chaos. It seems like there’s another school shooting every other week, another terrorist attack just as often, and we’re in danger of adding more wars every day. Yesterday it was with North Korea, the day before that it was Russia, and this morning it’s Syria. Dare I even mention that the current political climate has the United States of America more divided than ever?

So, what is the answer? Border Walls? Gun control? Mental health mandates? How about our spiritual health? Let’s take it back to love. Let’s take it back to the cross. Why? Because I whole-heartedly agree with both William Barclay who said, “Jesus’ coming is the final and unanswerable proof that God cares” and the late, great Billy Graham who said “God proved His love on the Cross. When Christ hung, and bled, and died, it was God saying to the world, ‘I love you.’”

I look to the cross and there is nothing that anyone can say or do to make me believe that God does not care about the chaos in our culture or that He does not love me in a very personal and direct way. He’s already proven it.

So, why don’t more people see it that way? Well, quite simply, we’ve pushed him out of our lives. We’ve put ourselves on the throne where He rightfully belongs. We see it all around us every day. Sadly, even often at church. Therefore, I would argue that it is our spiritual health that is in crisis and if we can fix that, everything else will fall into place.

Obviously, we can’t remove sin from the world. The world will be restored but it will be God that does it. Which is all the more reason to look to Him now. We need a revival. We need repentance. We need to make holiness and righteousness our primary goal. We need to put God back on the throne of our lives and, by extension, our culture.

I am convinced that with true, Christian revival would come a drastic reduction in murder, terrorism, war, racism and the indiscriminate shouts of hatred toward others that we see on the news every day and night.

Respect for God means we respect what God respects and love what God loves. God is love and He loves each and every one of us. That means that if we would wholeheartedly turn to God and changed our lives to reflect our love and respect for Him, we would almost automatically love and respect each other. If we respected each other, we would stop breeding hatred and, ultimately, stop killing one another.

In other words, passing all the laws in the world can’t do what turning to God can do. You might say, what the world needs now is Jesus, sweet Jesus. Perhaps now more than ever before.

My Intended Audience

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I have slowly been rolling out my answers to questions I received in an interview I did on Twitter back in November for #MounceChat / #HealthyFaith. This post is a continuation of that rollout.

A little over half way through the interview, a participant named Rachael Colby asked me, “Who is your audience? What age? Are they written for the Christian market, secular or both?” Here is how I responded:

I’d say “The Four Corners” series is written for kids older than eight. My wife is a teacher and she helped me put together a literary unit for schools which is a free download on the publisher’s website. We wrote a group Bible Study for families for that one, as well, which is also a free download. And, for the record, I know that a lot of adults have enjoyed the book, too.

Similarly, “The Gift of the Elements” series is written for teenagers and above but, I’ve had adults tell me that “The Gift of Tyler” is their favorite book. Hopefully, they feel the same way about “The Gift of Rio” and the others that haven’t come out yet.

The next series I’m planning (which is several books away) will be mostly for adults but,

I do like writing for a younger audience. Also, my hope (carried over from the earlier questions about faith and defining Christian novels) is that my books can be enjoyed by both Christian and secular audiences but, my faith is so much of who I am that I have reached a point in my life and my walk that I refuse to hide it and I’m sure some people will be turned off by that while others will identify with and appreciate it.

At this point in the interview, a participant called @mim526 joined in and asked, “I noticed in the description of The Gift of Rio that it’s chronologically book 1. For someone new to your books, do you recommend reading it first or after the Gift of Tyler?” Here is how I responded to their follow up:

The first four “The Gift of the Elements” books are stand-alone stories that are all connected but can be read in any order. “The Gift of Tyler” was the first book but the events in it technically happen fourth. You’re good either way.

I hope those questions and answers clear things up for people. More (from both the Twitter interview and elsewhere) to come!

Defining a “Christian” Novel

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I’m continuing to slowly rollout my answers to questions in an interview I did on Twitter back in November for #MounceChat / #HealthyFaith. This week’s post is a short but sweet one. A writer from Montana named Carol Buchanan asked me, “What defines a ‘Christian novel’?” Here is how I responded:

I’m sure it is defined differently by different people. For me, a Christian novel represents Christianity in a positive and honest way through character development and storyline and points people to the truth of God.

Someone whose primary concern is the marketing aspect of the literary world would tell you that it is definitely a genre of its own. But, for me, as the writer, I would say it’s the spirit that pervades the story. I don’t think there’s a strictly right or wrong answer. But, the latter is where I land.

Adding to my answer from back in November, I’ll just say that I don’t believe all of my own work would be called “Christian” by Christian film/book marketers and/or sellers although I also know that some of it certainly would be. However, I do believe that all of it represents Christianity in a positive and honest way and points people to the truth of God. I’m sure of this because I know I write honestly and from the heart and I have personally witnessed the power of Jesus Christ to change lives.

The more mature I become in my faith, the more that truth will reveal itself through my writing because it becomes increasingly intertwined with who I am. If you’re writing honestly, who you are shows up on the page every time. So, if you’re a true follower of Jesus Christ and you’re writing a novel from a heart transformed by the Holy Spirit, you’re writing a “Christian” novel whether or not you set out to do so.

The Influence of My Faith in My Storytelling

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I have been posting my answers to an interview I did on Twitter back in November for #MounceChat (which I believe has since merged with #HealthyFaith.) As I mentioned previously, this started because a participant, Rachael Colby, suggested I turn some of the questions and answers into blog posts. Solid advice. Since the third question was on a topic I have covered in a previous blog post, I’m going to skip ahead to the fourth question I was asked which was, “How does your faith influence your writing?? Here was my response:

C.S. Lewis said, “To love at all is to be vulnerable.” I think the same can be said of writing because to write at all is to expose yourself to your reader. My faith is who I am so, it comes out very naturally in my writing.

I grew up thinking that Christian music, movies and novels were mostly pretty cheesy. And, to be fair, a lot of it is. Certainly, a lot of it was. But, when I was younger, that caused me to run away from it instead of becoming someone who could try and improve upon what was out there. In my youth, I said I would always be a Christian and a writer but, I would never be a Christian writer.

So, on a number of projects I actually made an effort to write and keep certain things from coming off as “Christian.” But, it always felt dishonest because I was holding back a huge part of who I am. I used the excuse that Jesus came to heal the sick, not the healthy. It’s a truth Satan can twist to distract us from our mission.

Shortly before I started writing novels I began to realize that’s the same excuse people use when they water down the gospel or become preachers for selfish gain instead of fully giving themselves over to the Lord to be used by God the way God chooses. Contrary to what our attitudes sometimes suggest, He doesn’t need any help in deciding how to handle anything. To suggest otherwise would be to pretend we belong on that throne. Scary thought.

It’s a struggle everyone has because it’s the essence of sin itself. It’s pride and it’s wrong. What He wants, instead, is for us to let go and allow Him full access and full control. So, I’ve finally embraced it. It’s a decision that brings peace.

I’ve been encouraged as Christian music and even Christian movies have gotten better. But, I’ve also gotten closer to the Lord since I got married and now it feels like to hide that part of who I am would be to hide the whole of me. Quite frankly, if I did that, I don’t think my writing would be any good at all. I think that embrace really shows in my most recent book, “The Gift of Rio” more than in anything else I’ve ever written. Some of the people close to me, who have read most of the things I’ve written over the years, have told me that they think it’s the best thing I’ve written to date. I know this, it’s the most personal. And, that typically makes the writing better.

The Kind of Stories I Most Enjoy Telling

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As I mentioned a few posts ago, I did a #MounceChat interview on Twitter back in November and a participant, Racheal Colby, suggested I turn some of the questions and answers into blog posts. This is the second time I am taking her advice. The second question I was asked was, “What kind of stories do you most like to tell?” Here was my response:

I’ve always had a wide array of tastes. I like music from just about every genre (as is evident in a number of my blog posts) and the same is true of books and movies that I read and watch. So, of course, that greatly influences what I write.

As a screenwriter, I had the opportunity to try my hand at just about every genre out there. I hope that the same can be said when I’ve written all of the books I’m going to write. However, so far, with only three books under my belt, I have pretty much stayed in the fantasy lane. Not Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones type of fantasy – although I am a big LOTR fan – but fantasy nonetheless.

My first book, The Four Corners, I’ve always put in the same category as the Narnia books. Others have compared it to Bridge to Terabithia and A Wrinkle in Time. I hadn’t read either of those when I wrote it but, I’ve read the latter since and I can see why that comparison has been made.

The Four Corners starts with a family that is falling apart at the seams. The parents have essentially fallen out of love with one another and the oldest child, their daughter, is practically raising her younger brother on her own. When the young boy, Kinsey, hears the word “divorce” finally uttered in the midst of a screaming match, the emotions he has been bottling for years finally explode out of him and open a door that transports him to another world. When his sister and his parents go looking for him, they are transported to that world as well.

In this strange place, controlled by a demon named Raum, they are all separated onto different islands where they meet other people in their own gender and age categories who are also separated from their respective families. This gives them the opportunity to realize how much they love and miss one another and it becomes a story of finding their way back to one another.

My 2nd and 3rd books are a little trickier when it comes to finding comparisons. They are each part of the same series and I haven’t found too many novels that I think are accurate comparisons. They blend elements from stories in other media forms that I think work better. An example would be the 1995 movie Powder and even some comic books like Spider-Man, Superman and the X-Men.

In a nutshell, each of the first four books in the series are stand-alone stories about one person per book who begins to develop the ability to control an element. The first two are Tyler, who controls earth, and Rio, who controls water. Next will be Mattias who controls fire and then Amanda who controls the wind. It’s their journey in discovering who they are and why they were created. Their purpose is to show this fallen world that miracles still happen and that God, who gave them these abilities, still loves us.

But, I also have books I plan to write that are nowhere near the fantasy genre. I just haven’t gotten to any of them yet. I’m a planner by nature so, I already know the next 5 books I’m planning to write and one of them does happen to be one of those from outside of the fantasy genre.

Stay tuned . . .

2018 New Year’s Resolution

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I’ve never been much for new year resolutions. In fact, I specifically used to avoid them because I thought they were silly. The only one I ever really made and stuck to for any length of time was to get healthier. But, even that one petered out before the end of summer. Besides, why wait for a specific day on the calendar to make a positive life change?

While I still don’t think it is necessary to wait for a specific day, there is something refreshing about the clean slate that comes on January 1st. So, I’ve decided to make a simple, yet potentially profound, resolution for 2018. Through both good times and bad, I am going to live the truth of King David’s words in the following verse:

David wrote those words in a moment of time when he knew his own son, Absalom, was on his way to kill him and assume his throne. If David can hold on to that kind of faith during such a tragic, lonely, and terrifying period, so can I.

Who’s with me?