On January 1st some of you made New Year's Resolutions. It is the day many of us try to get in closer touch with life's big picture. It's the day many of us try to resolve the question of who we are and what we ought to be doing with our lives.

Some time ago, TV's Bryant Gumble interview the poet Maya Angelou on the Today Show. "What are your goals in life?" he asked. To which Maya, then in her sixties, replied, "I want to be a Christian! When people come up to me and say they are Christians, I am tempted to ask, "Already?" To be in close touch with the big picture, as Maya Angelou evidently was, is to realize that, in a very real sense, we who call ourselves Christians are on a journey; that we are engaged in the process of becoming the kind of Christian persons God wants us to be. Hopefully it will include the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control" (Galatians 5:22,23). Years ago when I was in high school in Oklahoma City, I saw this sign in front of a church: YOUR LIFE IS THE ONLY BIBLE SOME PEOPLE WILL EVER READ. WHAT KIND OF READING DO YOU MAKE?

Prayer:  "O God of our life, through all the circling years, we trust in Thee." For many of us, the calendar of our daily lives begins in the year 2010. In the stillness, O God, our hearts turn to you as the needle of a compass points to true North. We hold before you all those who travel, all who are kept from home by military duty or for other reasons, that they may be aware of sharing your wrap around love. Let the joy of your presence break upon us like a gentle sunrise with birds singing, that our spirits may soar to you in simple wonder. For we are your people and the sheep of your pasture, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.