Thought it would be good to surprise you by posting a blog item early today. It still is hard to believe that a week passed without a note here. Again, that is no one's fault but mine. If you remember we began 2009 with the stated goal of blogging quite often. For awhile we were successful in writing something almost every day. Looks like that goal went the way of a lot of our good intentions. We all know where that road of good intentions winds up.

What happens is we have goals or desires to change stuff in our life. There are very few more exciting things that to have those new ideas spring forth in our mind or heart. Then those new hopes crash into the reality of daily living. Here is where discipline meets desire to see which reality wins out. All of that is said to just remind you how change works in our life. The honest truth is it can be far easier to slide back into the old patterns than to slog through the process of change. It is just one of the realities of being human.

Sometimes we get a big jolt of inspiration for change. The list of sources of this is endless. There may be a spiritual source as God speaks something we need to hear. It can be a financial source when the bills and income stop adding up. Sometimes a relationship can serve to stimulate our doing better. You get the point by now. This is where I find myself lately. Last week I picked up the book, One Month to Live by Kerry Shook. We started last Sunday pulling sermons from the scripture as well as the themes of this book. How might your life be different if you learned that you had only one month to live?

Let's assume that we work through the inherent grief of that idea quickly. After all, we would have a limited time to make that month count. How would you change your way of life to extract as much joy in this world as you could? The premise of this book says, why not start living that way now? Why not do a ruthless inventory of the good and bad in your world to be sure that what you live for is really worth dying for? Tim McGraw was partially right in the song that encourages living like you were dying. He left out the part that all of us are dying. Only there are a few who know when that time will likely happen.

Take a long look at your relationships to see if you could make changes now that would give you a healthier view of life. Work through the spiritual areas of your world to ensure that your life with God lives on long after you are gone. Inventory how you spend your time to not waste that precious commodity on matters that just do not ... matter. Measure your financial life seeing as you will leave all of it behind. People can be as consumed by money whether they have a huge nest egg or if they can't find the bird! Let's let go of the stuff that gets in the way of living the full, abundant life. You will find that the pain of change is well worth it when God envelopes you with the life He purposed for you.

Bro. Trey