Hello everyone. Welcome to 2010! What will this year hold for us as a country? What will it hold for our state, city, and community? What ever happens this year will in large part be determined by how we approach this year as individuals. You see, collectively we all influence where the larger community goes by how we determine individually to live. If we continue along the same courses, unaltered, we will continue to get the same results. How many of us have already fallen off the wagon of your New Year’s resolutions? Not you, then good, hang in there and perhaps you will be part of what turns our world around. If, on the other hand, you are like the majority of us who make, then abandon resolutions, perhaps we should look to ancient wisdom to discover the root of our resistance to change.

In Romans 12:2 we find the root of transformation. Here the Apostle Paul writes to the church in Rome, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing, and perfect will.” You see, God speaks to us to change the way we think and thereby transform the way we live. Lasting change that isn’t precipitated by external circumstances comes from an internal shift in how we think and view the world. Our default mode is too often to fall into line with the rank and file around us and let the crowd do our thinking for us. This is why the author of life and truth calls to us from scripture and challenges us to think differently.

As the pastor at the Albert Lea Vineyard Church I was led by God to start off the New Year teaching through Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” found in Matthew 5-7. One of the things that occurred to me as I studied the first part of chapter five is that God is trying to shape our attitudes. A good friend told me that if you look at the Greek word for attitude, you would see that it’s very closely related to the concept of “Pathos,” or point of view. It’s basically a position one takes or occupies from which to view/interpret the surrounding world. As we start 2010, wouldn’t it be good for us to really take stock in the attitudes we have long held to see if they are really worth maintaining? Perhaps the present condition we find our country in is the result of going along with the “pattern of this world” as individuals rather than having our lives transformed by the “renewing of our minds.”

This has been my journey over the last year as God has gently challenged my perspective about a number of things. He did this through personal pain that forced me to take stock in my life. Could this present “national pain” of our struggling economy be a red flag to each individual to rethink how they view/interpret the world. History seems to teach us that the way we have related to and handled our money needs to change. Yet, we hear the pundits telling the public to spend in order to right the economy. Isn’t that the same tired logic we have always used to artificially inflate our economy to the largest in the world? Those who carry large amounts of debt often find themselves scrambling to stay one paycheck ahead of collectors. Rather than think of new ways to generate money to hold the status quo, why not dig deeper to see how we arrived at the “need” for all our stuff in the first place. Doesn’t it arise from the ways in which we think and interpret our world? The attitudes we have fostered through the years have now betrayed us and shown their true colors. It behooves all of us to stop to take stock in the “attitudes” that have long shaped our lives to see if they line up with truth. I have found God’s Word to be particularly helpful in this endeavor. Psalm 119:105 states it well, “Your Word, O Lord, is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path.” Who and what is lighting your way forward in 2010? Have they led you aright in the past? If not, then change is called for. Why not begin with God?