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This article originally appeared in the January 2007 Gold Canyon Lifestyle

Joining the Divine Process

I resolve to exercise everyday. Twice per day. I resolve to be nice to everyone. I resolve to eat right, everyday, every meal. I plan on helping the homeless this year and to work with underprivileged children. I will become fluent in a second language and I ain't gonna be so bad in my first language. I vow to learn piano. And I resolve to not sin this year.

Aren't those lofty goals? Some people set the bar so high that they give up their goals by January 3rd. Churches follow suit by setting goals that are way too high and absolutely unattainable. One church has a goal to change THE world. I get tired just thinking about that one. Change the world? I have no desire to change the world. I could never be a contestant for the Miss America title for a number of reasons, for one, I don't expect or desire world peace.

I don't think God has commanded us to change the world. He hasn't even commanded us to reach the whole world. He has commanded us to GO into the whole world! However, I don't think He expects us to change the whole world. I don't think we are suppose to. I think God wants us to reach out to people, not the whole world. I think God expects us to be fishers of men and women, not world-changers. I like it better God's way.

In the third chapter of Acts, Peter reaches out to a crippled man and changes the man's life. The man is a life-long cripple and Peter commands the man to be healed. As the chapter unfolds, Peter and John explain their actions and point people to Jesus while this newly transformed man does cartwheels behind them. He can't stop running and jumping with his new strength and vigor. I resolve to be like Peter this year. I want to be a channel that God uses to change people's lives. I want my words and actions to point people to Jesus. I pray fervently to be the same as Jesus Christ but I would even settle to be like Peter. To stop in my tracks, look at a person that needs Jesus and to command that they be made whole, to be on the front lines of compassionate service and touch people's lives. I want to be like Peter in Acts chapter 3.

Is it wrong to desire to be like that this next year? Everyday? Is that a lofty goal? It depends on how you look at it. We think that it is impossible to do what Peter did. We just can't do the miraculous like Peter and the Apostles did. However, if you look at the way Peter describes this miracle, we would notice it was not so unusual. Peter describes his actions in Acts chapter four, as incredible as it was, by saying it was simply "an act of kindness". Is it too lofty to resolve to be kind this year? We all have the power to do acts of kindness. We can all choose to be kind? It is not too lofty, we just choose to not be kind.

So I do not resolve to change the whole world this year. I just want to help people. I want to try and be kind to those I bump into; I want to be kind to those who forget how to drive in front of me; I want to be kind to those strangers who happen to cross my path; I want to be kind to those I live with and work with. I want to open myself up to be involved in the Divine Process of changing people, through simple acts of kindness, one person at a time. I want to change people and I think I'll start with myself.