One of those nights

Every now and then I have "one of those nights" A night of rest, restlessness and revelation. A night where I wrestle with sleep, myself and God things.

What set this night off was a sermon at the church here in Brazil where I am on the pastoral team. Our pastor, Carlito, is one of the finest young leaders I have ever met in any country. He is 38 years old and filled with energy and vision. I love seeing him lead and hearing him preach. He is a formula one doer.

He began a series last night called "2009-The Best Year of Your Life." Having been a senior pastor for many years it has been a real change for me to be a listener in most of the services I attend at church. I never realized how people listen to their pastor's sermon and evaluate their pastor's motives at the same time! I thought people evaluated the content of my messages and not the content of my motives.

As Carlito preached about the coming year, I knew he was motivating the church to not slow down in 2009. I knew he was motivating himself not to slow down. I knew he was trying to motivate me not to slow down. I was not in the mood to be motivated by a 38 year old to run at his pace in my 57 year old body.

Still, the sermon was almost irresistible. Carlito is good!

As I tried to go to sleep the idea of 2009 being the best year of my life was filling my mind. The rest, restlessness and revelation followed into the early hours of the morning. I rested. I wrestled. I received a new revelation about my life.

Here is the revelation. 2009 will be the best year of my life since Jesus is my perfect life and I have no intention of knowing Him less, loving Him less or abiding in Him less. I will have a perfect life in 2009 because I already have a perfect life in 2008. My life will be better because I will know Him better if I abide in Him even more consistently.

If the economy is my life, 2009 looks less. If politics is my life, my scotch-irish guy lost and 2009 looks less. (I hope I am wrong!)

To top the night off I decided to go downstairs and get on a treadmill and do some exercises. As I looked down at the controls of the treadmill I noticed that it has a chart for determining maximum cardiovascular benefit according to one's age.
The scale begins at age 20 and ends at age 65. That means the treadmill is set up for me to use for another 7 years.
If my physical DNA is the determining factor of 2009 being the best year of my life, things don't look good either.

Thank God the DNA of my new birth and new life in Jesus is still in its infancy and will last forever and only get better as I cooperate better.

2009 will be a very good year but I still won't run like a 38 year old. I will run at the pace of my perfect life--Jesus.
That may be even faster than Carlito!