Resolutions

Another new year is dawning and we close the chapter for 2009. As always, we talk of resolutions and the goals we would like to reach in the new year. Instead, I have taken a new perspective in regards to making New Year Resolutions...I won't! I look back over the blog I wrote at the end of 2008 and I quickly notice that most of my "Top 10" predictions didn't come close to being fulfilled...I didn't deploy, we didn't have a fourth child, I didn't get under 200 pounds, and, of all things, I didn't even read through the entire Bible. It shows no merit to set goals that will never be achieved or where an attempt to reach them hasn't even been started. The Scriptures tell us in Matthew 6:24, "So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today." My goals are not based on tomorrow or what will happen next month or what I think I will be doing "this time" next year. It is today and today only. Today is all I have and even its completion is not guaranteed in my life. I choose, rather, to live one day at a time and to use the time of the day wisely and to its fullest. Jame 4:13-14 tells us "Look here, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city. We will spend a year there. We will buy and sell and make money.' You don't even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? It is a mist that appears for a little while. Then it disappears. Instead, you should say, 'If it pleases the Lord, we will live and do this or that." I will be planning 2010 one day at a time starting with January 1, 2010 and going no further. This, by no means, says that I will ignore what lies ahead in the future. It just means that I plan to stay grounded in the present day (what I can control) so that I can eventually (and successfully) reach December 31, 2010 living focused 24 hours at a time.

What About Him?

I doubt that I would be the first chaplain to admit that military ministry is very competitive. The fact is clear that every chaplain can pray, visit, preach, teach and conduct worship, but not all can be recognized for it. Only one can be stratified as #1. Only one can win a quarterly or annual award and only so few can even have the luxury of being nominated for such awards. Despite our humble and selfless approach to ministry, we still need to "step out" in creativity with our talents and abilities for recognition. It is an unspoken stress in the chaplaincy to be able to "effectively toot one's own horn." If one is not careful this can cause tension, anxiety, suspicion, and jealousy when a colleague is singled out for recognition or wins an award (when I wasn't even nominated). It can even seem more defeating if a supervisor has a tendency to "favor" this colleague because they are "such a great chaplain" that they are always given the "high profile" tasks that leads to even more recognition. I wonder if that is what was always running through Peter's mind as he "battled for position" as one of the twelve disciples. I wonder what he honestly thought about John since the Bible indicates John was, for a lack of a better term, "the favorite" (beloved). I won't lie...I burn a little when a fellow chaplain wins an award, gets a medal, or really shines on an assigned project...especially when I do equal work or even more consistent and successful projects without any recognition, awards, or so much as a "good job, Charles!" I even worry that lack of awards and recognition could lead to me not getting promoted. I seem, like Peter, in John 21:22, always fuming "what about him?" or "what about her?" There is a fear in feeling insignificant towards the natural abilities of others. It is unnerving to feel "outclassed" as well as a day-late and a dollar-short with what I am capable of offering in comparison to what others get recognized for. Jesus sternly warned Peter (in regards to worrying about John), "What is that to you?" The one thing Jesus was most concerned about for Peter was simple: "Follow me!" I need to focus more on advancing my relationship with God who is the source of my career advancement. I need to promote a better focus on my ministry with my Lord who is the One responsible for my military promotion. In regards to my colleagues...it is not a competition. God has designed their steps for a different pace and their abilities for a different approach towards ministry. In that, as with Peter, I stop wasting so much time worrying about what others are doing. Galatians 6:4, "Let everyone be sure that he is doing his very best, for then he will have the personal satisfaction of work well done and won't need to compare himself with someone else."