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Matter?

             Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. (I Corinthians 9:24)

 

            We’re almost there. Some people will spend this weekend celebrating having made it through 2022, and that is an accomplishment. Others will spend it celebrating the beginning of 2023. That’s not a bad thing. But if you were going to meet someone important the next morning, would you really stay up until midnight? If something really mattered the next day, would you party?

            I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t greet the new year. This isn’t about giving you a case of guilts. But I’m inviting us both to think. How well would a runner do if he spent the six weeks before a race not running and eating enough for two people? Obviously, not nearly as well as he would if he followed a strict training schedule and diet. For the athlete, training and diet matter.

            How often do we, who are not athletes, take the approach that what we do doesn’t matter? We may recognize that it matters in the long run, but how often does this time not matter? Certainly, everyone needs a “treat” once in a while, but how often do we decide it doesn’t matter and treat ourselves every time. To make it worse, how often do we say something doesn’t matter, and when we’re done, it turns out to have mattered so little to us that we didn’t enjoy it?

            I’m also not talking about treating ourselves as if we are the only thing that matters in the universe. But if something matters to you, how do you treat it?

           Sometimes, we know what matters in our lives. We have to work to pay the bills, we’ve had a health scare so we’re eating carefully, etc. But my challenge to both of us is to start out 2023 by choosing to make something matter. It might be one thing for the whole year, or it could be a day-to-day thing. But what matters do you? What does the fact that you matter to God mean to you? What can you do in 2023 that will matter? What can you do tomorrow that will matter? Even if it’s as little as picking up litter or smiling at someone on the street – treat it as if it matters.

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