Long ago, I gave up on the traditional “New Years Resolutions” since it was usually the third week in January that I gave up on my New Years Resolutions. So, a few years ago I started doing something different: I began asking the Lord in December what word He’d want me to focus on in the following year. This would be a word that would focus my thoughts, shape my goals and give me something to think about during the entire year. No longer did I have a set number of pounds to lose or a fixed number of times per week I would work out - these always led to failure. My word for the year would give me something to meditate on, to think about, to live by - it would bring me to certain books to read, messages to listen to, websites to check out… No failure. Only victory!

This word always inevitably comes from something that is already a theme in my life in some way - but maybe something I want to challenge myself with over the course of the next year. In 2004, I knew I needed to get beyond my self-focus, so my word was “others”. In 2005, He actually gave me three words: purity, humility and dependence. In 2006, it was church history.

A few weeks ago when I began to think about my “word for 2008″, I was thinking about my boys. I thought about the fact that they get jazzed at just about everything they see, no matter how common or simple. Jonathan still looks up at the moon sometimes and says “Daddy! The moon, the moon!” Unfortunately, I’ve looked at the moon so many times I hardly see it anymore and have gotten bored with it. It just blends in to the night sky now. I’ve forgotten that it’s an amazing orb 240,000 miles away from earth whose lunar pull actually affects ocean tides here on the earth! And it struck me that somewhere between the age of five and me, humans tend to lose the childlike wonder and awe that my boys have. Many people trudge along just trying to get through life, unaware of the incredible things in, around and above us that can inspire that same childlike wonder. I don’t want to be one of those people.

A few years ago, I read my favorite book of all time The Pleasures of God by John Piper, and he introduced me to a fascinating man - his mentor, Clyde Kilby. Kilby lived every day by his “Eleven Resolutions for Staying Alive to God’s Glory.” His seventh resolution said this:

I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their “divine, magical, terrifying, and ecstatic” existence.

I love where these resolutions take me. They make me open my eyes and my heart - and they take me to the glory of God - to His mystery and wonder. I too seldom live according to these resolutions that I adopted as my own a few years ago, and I know God wants me to recapture His glory by opening my eyes to His wonder. The wonder of all that He has made, the wonder of how He’s redeemed me, the wonder of the relationships He’s blessed me with…

So, it is with great expectation that I live 2008 with my word for the year: Wonder.

I looked up “wonder” on dictionary.com and here’s what it says:

One that arouses awe, astonishment, surprise, or admiration; a marvel:

I look forward to seeing what God brings my way that will arouse awe, astonishment and surprise - as I open my eyes to the wonder of all that He is and all that He has made - staying alive to His glory. And I invite you as well, to keep your eyes and ears open to experience the wonder God has in store for you.