There's a burden that comes when you set your life toward God.

Once you've taken those first, tentative steps of faith - not sure what it all means or where it will take you, either in the short term or ultimately - your life is no longer your own.  What you do, why you do it, how and even when you do whatever it is you do has a meaning, an importance far beyond you....

"You are not your own," the Apostle Paul says, "you were bought with a price."  And, what a Price!

When you set your life toward God, your decisions matter more.  "You are not your own..." and neither are your decisions. Or the consequences of those decisions.

When you set your life toward God, your "yes" should be "yes" and your "no" should be "no"... and your "maybe" should not be a simple way to brush someone off or to push a decision down the road for another day.  Your "maybe" should be the opening to prayerful, thoughtful, honest and ethical consideration and seeking.

When you set your life toward God, the burden of significance rests on your shoulders... reminding you that 

     You are not your own
     Your life is not just about you
     Your decisions matter, and 
     The impact of your life sends ripples into the lives of all those you contact.

But - and here's the Good News - when you set your life toward God, the burden is not your's alone to bear.

"My yoke is easy, my burden is light," Jesus says to those who come to him 

     Weary of doing life by the world's definition
     Laden down with the burdens of a self-focused understanding of purpose and even life itself.

The burden that comes when you set your life toward God is the "weight of glory"...

     The pressing in of the Holy Spirit's presence
     The gravity of being conformed to the image of Christ, and
     The substance of the God of the Universe being real and present and involved in your actual life.

The burden changes you.
Thanks be to God.

It seems that each year, as we turn the calendar from December 31st to January 1st, we think about what has been and what is to come...

      What went well in the past year? 
      What went not-so-well?

      What do you want to be different in the next year?
      How do you want to be different in the next year?

I asked a question earlier today on my twitter account - (@pauldawson63) - that seems pretty simple on the surface, but that somehow feels bigger, deeper than the typical "So, what New Year's resolutions are you making?"

Here's the question:

                             "What plans, hopes, dreams do you have for 2013?"

Resolutions don't seem to last for most of us.  They are like words written in the sand on an ocean beach.  They last for a while and may even look really good.  But, then, the tide comes in.  They waves gently but steadily wash them away.  Before we know it, the words we so boldly and plainly wrote for all to see are no more.  Resolutions can be like that too.

But plans are much more concrete... there are details with them... objectives that can be reached, progress markers that can be checked off.   Plans - especially our plans - need to be made humbly, though... remembering that we are not the final arbiter of the details of our lives.  

James - the brother of Jesus - reminded us of this truth when he wrote "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit' — yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.  Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.'(James 4:13-15 ESV)

Hopes are deeper than resolutions too.  Not the wishy-washy "Gee, wouldn't it be nice if..." sort of hope that is too often substituted for real, Biblical hope (see Romans 5:1-5), but hope that changes you.  Hope that moves you.  Hope that gives you courage, drive, and a bit of daring.  

The New Testament book of Romans says it this way - "Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience." (Romans 8:24-25 ESV)

Hope is for what we admittedly cannot clearly see ahead of us.  We live into it as if it will be as we've envisioned it.  There is a huge piece of trust involved in this hope.  The vision of that hope needs to be held with open hands... our hope may need to be re-directed from time to time to get us to our destination.

Then there are the dreams we have for the New Year.  Dreams... the ideal outcome(s) we picture for ourselves.  Dreams... the way we want life to be.  Dreams... the things that inspire us and push us to hope and to plan. 

What are your plans, hopes, dreams for 2013? 

Make them... work toward them... celebrate them... on the Potter's Wheel.