We went and saw the movie “The Boys in the Boat” on Christmas Day, and since then, I have been watching YouTube videos of various history stories of the different guys in the movie in real life. It is so interesting to see the histories of different people across multiple time slots. I wrote out the history of my Mom from a variety of sources we found in her archives after she died. I read through that again the other day. She had a fascinating history that resulted in me being a person.

So many people traveling through life intersecting in various ways, meeting people, getting married, having kids, and going on in the journey. It fascinates me to think about an infinitely wise and loving God planning, watching, causing, tweaking, and hoping as He watches it all unfold.

Psalms 33:13-15 The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men; From His dwelling place He looks out On all the inhabitants of the earth, He who fashions the hearts of them all, He who understands all their works.

I am one person in a sea of humanity, but I have a story, a history, and I am self-aware of myself, almost as if I am the only person because I am the only one who is me, that I live in, that talks to me on the inside. I have never won a gold medal in the Olympics, and I didn’t live during the “Great Depression,” but I have done a bunch of other things that are unique to me.

It seems like from God’s perspective, it all fits together, all these different people with their own unique story, somehow fitting together like a bunch of varied colored threads in a big quilt. God, the quilt maker, is fun to think about and write about.

I got your attention on the title, didn’t I 😜. I am not dying right away, at least not that I am aware of, but I am getting older every day and wearing out rapidly!

Years ago, a middle-aged person in our church received news that they wouldn’t live longer than three months. I went to visit them, and they said to me, “I am so scared!” They were a believer, but the unknown about what happens at the point of death freaked them out (their words).

I have thought about death a lot in the last couple of years, partly because of my age and partly because so many people that I know have died. I can genuinely say that I have zero fear of dying, and I am looking forward to it. I am asking the Lord to move the date up; I am more than ready to come home unless there is some significant job He wants me to do.

I got to thinking the other night as I was sitting in the hot tub there isn’t much I haven’t experienced or done in life. My kids are raised, the grandkids are all doing well, the church is cruising along, and things pick up whenever I am gone for several months in a row.

I have lived a full life and enjoy sitting in my recliner doing nothing. I still enjoy preaching, teaching, fishing, hunting, writing, and working on my old cars, but I have to take more breaks and naps now, so it takes a long time to get any project done.

I know I am going when God decides, but it is nice to be looking forward to the day I die rather than dreading it. I look forward to going to Alaska for a month this summer to fish till my arm falls off, but I look forward to seeing Jesus and getting my new body more!

There are many mysteries in the Bible. A mystery is a previously unrevealed truth or understood truth. One mystery is God becoming flesh and blood, just like us, with all our weaknesses. That is truly incomprehensible.
Hebrews 2:14: “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same,”
Another mystery is us being transformed into the image of Jesus. Wow, that one is hard to grasp, for sure.
Philippians 3:20-21 “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”
But the greatest mystery is Jesus living in us now. It is easy to say and write, but do I really get it? Almighty God is living in me.
Colossians 1:27: “To whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode in him.”
As I ponder that mystery to try and get it clear in my thinking, I wonder what that means practically for me in my day-to-day living and if I am experiencing the full power and blessing I should be experiencing as a person walking around with God in him.

Starting on January 2nd, one of my new goals is to get up Monday through Friday at 4:30 am and go to the YMCA in Albany with Patty. She will do “Swim Aerobics,” I will run on the treadmill and lift weights. I got up fine yesterday, our first morning, to do this new routine, but last night, I didn’t get to sleep very early, and when the alarm went off, I was dead asleep. Patty said that the first words out of my mouth were, “Oh, Crapp.” I talked her into letting me skip and sleep some more. She is a wonderful wife, but I will try hard to get to bed by 9:00 tonight.

I made this goal for three reasons; the first was to do something with Patty. It is a thirty minute drive in and a thirty minute drive home, so we can talk during that time. If we pick up a cup of coffee in the snack area of the “Y” I will call it a date, and get two goals knocked off at once. The second reason is to get more faithful in my exercise. At home I kept missing and was sporatic in keeping my exercise goals because there was always something else that needed doing that was certainly more enjoyable than running on a treadmill or lifting weights. The third reason is that I was slipping a bit in my time management and was wasting more and more time watching YouTube clips of news and sports in the evening and getting up later and later in the morning. That is why I was late getting to bed last night.

I taught a class in Leadership Class this weekend on “Time Management,” and one of the key verses was, “Make the most of your time because the Lord is coming!” Yikes, how can I teach that and not do it!” So, if I miss a few times writing this blog in the next month or so, it is probably because I wasn’t disciplined enough to get it done before 9:00 pm

And the forth reason is to grow in self-control.

I like new beginnings. No matter how well things went in the past and how well I think I did, there are always a ton of things that I messed up on and many areas that I could do so much better in. As I look at all of the failed goals and poor decisions of the past, I can think of dozens of ways to do better, so with a new beginning, here is my chance to at least improve, if not knock it out of the park.

The desire to improve, get better, and grow is a very good desire and one I believe God put into us by design and creation. Over the years of living, we can cause that desire to increase, and we can cause it to decrease, even to the point that it is almost dead. In Revelation 3, Jesus is talking to the church of Laodicea, and He says that because they are lukewarm, He will spit them out of His mouth. A person is lukewarm when their desire to grow and to accomplish more is mainly gone.

That is a sad place to be, but many Christians are there. One main reason is that many people fear personal failure, and striving to get better at anything is extremely intimidating, so they coast and stay lukewarm.

A very effective way to increase our desire to grow and improve is by writing goals for our lives and then reading those goals every day. It is a simple thing to do, and it works very well. Give it a shot this year.