Having A Holly, Jolly, Mixed-Up Christmas

Once upon a time there was a man named Scrooge. His best friend name’s was Grinch. They weren’t very nice guys. They hated holidays in general, but they really hated Christmas. Too much joy and fa la la la la good tidings and such. One very cold December they talked a kid into sticking his tongue to a freezing pole. Actually they triple-dog dared him and when that didn’t work they promised him $5 to do it. The kid needed the dough to buy his little brother Tim a fiberglass crutch. While he was stuck to the pole they ran off laughing and scoffing and didn’t give him any money. Trying to scheme something else dastardly to do Grinch said, “I know a kid named Cindy Lou, let’s go scare her.” Scrooge said, “Who?” Grinch said, “Yes.” A mixed-up Scrooge replied, “Cindy Lou who?” Grinch, who was growing green with exasperation, said, “Yes, that’s what I said, Cindy Lou Who.” Scrooge shouted over a group of passing carolers singing Do You Hear What I Hear? “No I didn’t hear what you said for all of the fa la la la la noise and I don’t want to scare a little girl with so many rhymey names! I have a better idea. I know a kid who’s home alone. Let’s go scare him.” “Yes,” replied Grinch, “That will be fun. Isn’t this a wonderful life, Scrooge?” Scrooge didn’t hear Grinch because he was being chased by a dog. He yelled back to Grinch, “Help me Grinch, it’s Chuck Brown’s dog again!” Grinch didn’t hear Scrooge because he was running in the opposite direction. He too was scared of Chuck Brown’s dog. They had had a run-in with that dog Halloween night in a pumpkin patch.

A mixed-up story line? A jumbled plot? A confusing combo of players? Welcome to Christmas in the 21^st Century. In our hurry-up, make-a-buck, speed-of-light-living-world the baseline of Christmas is easily missed. It’s as if all of the Christmas stories and movies are tossed together. You’re thinking of pagans right now, aren’t you? Of course many non-believers miss the point; that’s why they’re called non-believers. Truth is even Christians are skilled at missing the finer points of Advent and Christmas. How? Speed mostly. We know better. We have the story memorized. We know O Holy Night by heart. None of us mean to slog through Christmas without feeling the love, yet we sometimes allow all of December to slip by without having a fresh encounter with God. When Christmas becomes mixed-up with the-busy-life there can be only two possible outcomes: Life wins; or, Jesus breaks through the noise and the wrapping paper and changes our lives. It really is all about a baby born in a manger on a cold winter’s night so all people can find salvation, peace and purpose. Yep, even Scrooge and Grinch and all of the other mixed-up people in the world.

Share the love and the straight-up message of Christmas this year…and change the world!

Michael McCullar

Jesus Was Married. NOT!

The latest hot find in the historical and archaeological world concerning Jesus suggests Jesus was married. Yes, we are back on that bus again. This go-round Dr. Karen King of Harvard Divinity School is the caretaker of a fragment of papyrus written in Coptic that has Jesus saying, “…my wife…she was able to be my disciple.” Ain’t that sweet? But is it true? Sadly truth is in the eye and ear of the beholder. I can’t read Coptic, Egyptian or Klingon. Coptic is Egyptian written with the Greek alphabet so suffice it to say it’s edging toward Latin in the dead language category. Dr. King teaches a course at Harvard on basic Coptic so she would be an expert. I consulted with the in-house language experts at Tyndale House (a Biblical studies group with lax enough rules to allow me in) and they concur that the newly-discovered text reads exactly as Dr. King states.

So what do we do with this? Say oops to the world and rethink our entire faith structure? Feel even sorrier for Catholic Christians who would be even more impacted than us? Or, read deeply into Dr. King’s thesis and see that even she doubts this has anything to do with the actual and historic Jesus. Let’s go with the latter option. The fragment has been authenticated and several scholars see it as being written in the third century. So it’s real and its revisionist history. Someone wanted Jesus to have been married (as was the case in the Gospel of Thomas) so they wrote that he had a wife (guess who?) on a scrap of papyrus and somehow it has survived until now.

So despite what Access Hollywood, National Enquirer or What's Happenin' 'n Jerusalem reports Jesus was not married to Mary Magdalene or anyone else. He was single in matters of matrimony, vision and purpose. Trust me on this, Paul would have told us if Jesus had been married. I can’t read Coptic but I can read Paul!

Michael McCullar

Here’s to You Ms. Diller & Dr. Miller

Calvin Miller, educator, preacher and writer, recently died. Dr. Miller was a unique writer who knew few equals. He led two of our Spiritual Renewal Sundays and brought his own brand of insight, humor and theological reality to our church. I read one of his first books in the early 1980’s and was hooked on his style. He was sort of a poor man’s J.R.R. Tolkien or C.S. Lewis.

Phyllis Diller also recently passed away. Ms. Diller, comedienne extraordinaire, was 95 when she died. She was a fixture on the clean by today’s standards television variety shows of the sixties and seventies. She was self-deprecating as a form of comedy and certainly dressed the part. In reality she was an award winning actress, concert pianist and gourmet cook. To say you can’t judge a book by its cover is complete understatement in the case of Phyllis Diller.

Who left the biggest footprint? It’s probably not a fair question but there’s little doubt Ms. Diller would win that competition. For people in my generation she was the first superstar comedian who held her own against the Bob Hope’s of the world. She paved the way for all female comedians who followed. Dr. Miller? In my book he wins due to the way he was able to write, articulate and live his faith. I am a better and stronger believer due to his work. In my life at least, he leaves the biggest mark.

This isn’t to say Phyllis Diller wasn’t a great person, maybe even a great person of faith. I don’t know about her faith. She made me laugh and for that I’m grateful. She helped me find humor as a way to navigate life. I’m appreciative for that too. But her jokes never challenged my faith, nor did her books cause me to consider following God at a deeper level. Calvin Miller led me to want to become a writer way back when. He encouraged me with these words a few years ago: Remember Michael, we don’t do this for the fame or the money, neither will come our way, we do this for God’s Kingdom. He actually said we. I had just admitted to him I was ready to give up and stop writing. I told him I had literally tens of readers and wondered why I was working so hard at it for so seemingly little gain. He put it all into perspective for me. Impact one person and its worth the effort.

I’m not a better writer for getting to know Calvin Miller. He was not a miracle worker. I am simply a better person and believer due to his life. He leaves a massive footprint. And at the end, isn’t that what life is all about?

Michael McCullar

Kaleidoscope People

It’s much harder to be shocked than it used to be. Just when you think life isn’t becoming one giant reality television program someone does something to remind you just how ridiculous humans can be. Recently there was a pastors’ conference in a neighboring state that advertised that only white people could attend. Thankfully the group wasn’t Baptist in any shape or form; it was the Church of God Chosen, a non-affiliated church of Pentecostal persuasion. The leader of the conference is under fire from his entire town over his whites-only stance. His rationale: white people are God’s chosen people. His proof: the Bible. His diagnosis: Nuts! O.K., that’s my diagnosis of him and his theology.

I’ve read the entire Bible…the whole book…went to school to study it in more depth…even read the hard parts more than once…and it’s clear that white people were not God’s Chosen people. Do you think he realizes Jesus was Jewish? Has he been to the Middle East where people are all shades of brown and darker? The New Testament story was not centered in Sweden or Finland where the whitest white people live. Does he not realize God is color blind? God loves the Finns and Swedes and Jews all the same. What about the multi-hued peoples of America. Yep, even us, but not exclusively us, and certainly not just the melanin-impaired Americans.

Thank God today for His unconditional love and grace for all people groups. That’s really the story of the New Testament. Resist all temptation to look down at other people groups or individuals who are living life differently than we are. I’ve studied my genealogy…my family tree is like a grove of different trees…there’s red people, black people, brown people and all kinds of white people, even some crazy ones thrown in to spice up the mix. I’m a mutt. Most of us are. And God loves us anyway. That’s why they call it the Good News!

Michael McCullar

How to Imitate Jesus Without Getting Crucified

Have you ever been told that if you would imitate Jesus all would be well in your life? From pulpits to podiums to books we are told to imitate Jesus. WWJD bracelets were all the rage a decade ago. Put one on your wrist, look at it every once in a while, and viola, better life. It’s no doubt true that to seek to live as Jesus lived and to react as Jesus reacted would result in a better spiritual life. Despite the facts that Jesus lived two thousand years ago in a country far removed from our own doesn’t lessen the value of his examples. When you speak of Jesus you are speaking of God; so, emulating Jesus is to emulate supreme Godliness. Jesus was God Incarnate, which is Bible-speak for God in human form. Jesus is to be our life-example.


Now for the hard part: exactly how do we emulate and imitate Jesus? We can’t heal the sick, nor can we drive demons out of people. We can’t turn a few fish and loaves of bread into a massive fish sandwich meal for thousands of people. We can’t turn water into wine. We can’t calm gale force winds on a body of water and we certainly can't walk on water. Enough of the cant’s, let’s look at what we can do: we can see our power coming from God the Father and keep up a regular stream of communication. We can go around doing good for people in God’s name. We can love the hard-to-love and provide care for the needy. We can place the needs of those we haven’t yet reached ahead of our own.


Now for the really hard part: Jesus died. To emulate Jesus is to be willing to die for God. Losing one’s life due to being a Christian actually happens in many places in the world; but let’s face it, it doesn’t happen here. Losing one’s actual life is not required to be a dedicated follower of Jesus. This is a good thing. All that is required is to symbolically give up our hold on our life and give it to God. We symbolically die to our carnal, sinful, natural, dead-end selves and allow God to gift the Holy Spirit into our lives. So death is involved, just not the as a doornail type. After we have the Holy Spirit in our lives it is easier to seek to imitate Jesus in all the other ways…just don’t get your hopes up for walking on water or tossing out demons.


Crucifixion is not required, but a form of death is before we have a prayer of imitating Jesus. It’s so very counter intuitive but death precedes life in God’s equation. It is only in dying that we can live in the manner God wishes for us to live. Sign me up for that whole WWJD thing!

Most Overused Words & Phrases

Recently a small college in Michigan determined the most overused words and phrases in the English language. Their idea was to have these words banished from the Queen’s English, although it seems unlikely the Queen of England will pay a great deal of attention to Lake Superior State University (the Lakers, of course). Google, Yahoo and a few other internet groups picked up the list and it’s presently making its way around the web. It’s hard to disagree with the choices, which will be examined below, but the list is simply too short. Words should be examined annually by some trustworthy group and if found to be overly trite, rude, insensitive or ubiquitous (O.K., or too long), they should be officially banished. The Queen of England should be part of the ceremony, along with the National Spelling Bee Champion of the United States, and seven randomly picked English teachers from the English speaking world. If the words are deemed losers…BOOM, gone, banished, vanquished, non-ubiquitous (or long).

The Lakers chose:

Occupy: For obvious reasons and yes, it is getting a bit ubiq…uh, overused.

Baby Bump: Totally insensitive but actually better than the British preggers.

 24/7: Yes, thank you for this one. All the time worked so well for so long.

Ginormous: Did we really need to combine giant and enormous? No. Pick one.

Thank you in advance: I actually use this one a lot so let’s skip it.

Amazing: Huh? They are actually dissing amazing? That ranks with cool. Nope.

As Christians we have to be especially careful with our language choices. People are always listening and many are taking cues from us. If we use a certain type of language  they may feel better about using it. For this reason we too should do a review of words and phrases that might shed a negative light on our faith. We may have a ginormous problem and it may be on-going, even 24/7. Possibly negativity occupies our minds and souls. Remember, our faith is amazing and so is God’s grace. We can speak and sound like the positive, edifying people God created us to be.

Oh, and thank you in advance for reading this article!

Michael McCullar

My Heroes Have Always Been Persians

Well, not really. My first heroes were of the classic Western type; then they became the type who could leap tall buildings in a single bound; and, then they were private investigators. At a point around the turn of the century my adulations shifted east and Persian Christians became my heroes. Over the past twelve years I’ve spent time with many Iranian Christians who have endured incredible hardships and persecution for their faith. Persecution is something we Americans talk about but is not something to which we can easily relate. I do not personally know any Anglo-Americans who have been jailed, beaten or killed for being a Christian.

Just last week I was privileged to lead a team to a foreign country where Iranian believers have taken refuge in order to train and prepare to take the Gospel into Iran. Many of these courageous men and women will start house churches and risk their lives to reach Muslims with the true story of God’s salvation. As a team we spent several hours each day with these people and the sad reality is that we will likely never see them again. They will wrap up their training and follow God’s leadership in what can only described as a true New Testament lifestyle. Much like Paul some will be jailed and some could even be killed. But they will all make a life-altering difference in Iran. Iranians will receive the Gospel story and find true faith in Jesus Christ. And it will all be worth it.

 

These people are my heroes. They know a lot more about picking up a cross and following Jesus than I ever will. They believe risking one’s life is what loving God is all about. And you know what? They are right. My heroes really are Persian Christians after all!

Michael McCullar

Lent Is More than the Stuff on the Brush

I lived in New Orleans for eight years and I’ll never be the same because of my time there. The food was phenomenal, the sights were fantastic and the history was awe-inspiring. To be honest, New Orleans is unique to the South. Yes there’s Spanish Moss and mosquitoes you can ride, but most similarities stop there. All one would have to do is visit during Mardi Gras season to understand the truth of the last statement. New Orleans parties hard, heavy and fast during February’s lead up to Fat Tuesday. Fat Tuesday is the day before the Lenten season begins with Ash Wednesday. Fat Tuesday features rowdy behavior by many due to days on end of drinking all forms of alcohol. People do amazingly stupid things on Fat Tuesday, often regretting the acts the following day (and if it ends up on Facebook, for many days and weeks to follow).

Ash Wednesday is a somber and sober day in New Orleans as people flock to the cathedrals and churches to have the sign of the cross placed on their foreheads by a priest or minister. The ashes used are from palm branches used on Palm Sunday of the previous year. They are burned, mixed with holy (blessed) water into a paste and applied to the foreheads or hands of those who seek to become more spiritual over a span of six and one half weeks culminating with Easter Sunday. In New Orleans the population is overwhelmingly Catholic and Ash Wednesday is a regular part of the Catholic liturgy and practice. Baptists in the city do not celebrate Ash Wednesday as a rule but a few churches hold special services that coincide with the beginning of Lent.

I didn’t grow up in a high service/high liturgy church so to me lent was something we used a sticky brush to remove from our clothes. It wasn’t until I moved to New Orleans that I grew to appreciate the spiritual possibilities of Ash Wednesday and the Lenten season. Lent is a 43-day season where we can reorder our lives, confess and move away from problem sins and place more dependence upon God than we do on ourselves. Many people will fast during Lent and others will give up something over the six weeks. The key is to place something distinctly spiritual into the void left by the object being avoided. Lent can be a true life-changer.

I disagree with the New Orleans model of drinking one’s self silly on Fat Tuesday so Ash Wednesday will be more effective. Paul had a lot to say on that view of forgiveness of sin and he would not have been a fan of Mardi Gras. I’m guessing he’d have sent the churches a letter or two. But let’s face it…we all sin, no matter where we live or what we do on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. So let’s forget Tuesday and embrace Wednesday. Ash Wednesday. A new start for all of us!

Michael McCullar

Finding Your Inner-Salt

I finally succumbed and purchased the best-selling book The History of Salt by Mark Kurlansky. I’d talked myself out of buying it for a couple of years but I found a discounted paperback copy and quickly began reading it. I’m fascinated by how a writer can take a seemingly mundane subject and turn it into a million-seller book. If George Clooney could play a pile of salt the movie rights would be up for grabs right now. The actual book, setting aside all professional jealousy, is a masterpiece. Salt was gold for more years than gold has been gold, if you get my drift. Salt literally ran the world for thousands and thousands of years.


Did you know that Egyptians used salt to make mummies (I think they used bodies primarily but salted them down really well)? Or, that salt was to the ancient Hebrews, and still is to modern Jews, the symbol of the eternal nature of God’s covenant with Israel? Did you know that for eon’s loyalties and friendships were sealed with salt because its essence does not change? (Even dissolved into liquid salt can be evaporated back into crystals). Roman soldiers were often paid in salt, which was the origin of the word salary and the expression being worth your salt. The Latin word sal (salt) became the French word solde, meaning pay, which is the origin of the word, soldier. This is one literary lesson you should take with more than a grain of salt!

 The New Testament instructs us to be salt and light to our world. One of salts greatest early values was to preserve food. Another value was as a seasoning, something we continue to use today. It is the seasoning aspect we should translate into our daily faith lives to be true to scripture. We are told to live lives that demonstrate and provide an example that is different from the norm around us. We are to season life with holiness and positives that other people will want to have in their own lives. Something as mundane as salt can still transform the world.
 
Michael McCullar

Being a Regular Size Person in a Skinny Fit World

Who invented the skinny fit approach to clothing? You know the kind, sits lower on the waist and is tapered down the legs. Really? Seriously? In America? The land of “Super-Size those fries for me!” I am a relatively normal size person and I accidentally picked up a pair of skinny fit trousers to try on. It was an ugly experience. Who besides a seriously, even certified, skinny person, would want a pair of skinny fit men’s pants? What happened to the “expand-a-trouser’ model of a few years ago that gave a bit around the waist? Now those were excellent trousers. I’m guessing you would have a harder time outgrowing those so the return business was not what it needed to be. Probably a consultant in Paris said, “Ahhh, let’s get those Americans by designing skinny fit clothes” (add in your own French accent). And there you go…we are now the land of skinny fit clothes!
You may be asking at this point, “what exactly does this have to do with faith?” You may also be thinking, “preach on my mid-size brother…I despise skinny fit clothes too!” Keep reading and we will all end up happy, well that is if we aren’t presently stuck in a pair of super tight, uncomfortable trousers. Skinny fit clothes are for skinny people. To squeeze into a pair of this or that just to be stylish is unnecessary discomfort and, let’s face it, it’s pretty obvious if “the skinny clothes don’t fit.” It’s better to relax and be O.K. with what we are. Obviously we should treat our bodies as holy vessels created by God and that might mean a diet or a bit of exercise or less stress. At some point, however, we are what we are. The same goes for matters of faith.


I learned a long time ago I’m not Billy Graham, nor am I Max Lucado. Truth be told, they aren’t me either (although they wouldn’t know me from Adam’s gardener). I’ve accepted my gifts and what God has called me to do. It took time, but I stopped trying to be something other than the unique person God intended me to be. In God’s scheme we are all unique, necessary and vital to making a difference in the world. Sadly, we won’t make that difference until all of us step up to God’s calling for our lives. Each of us. Being O.K. with who we are. Finally. Unlike skinny fit clothes, God’s fit is always perfect!

Michael McCullar

Life Before the Super Bowl

The first Super Bowl took place in Los Angeles on January 15, 1967 between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs. Led by Bart Starr on the field and Vince Lombardi on the sidelines the Packers won the initial game 35-10. The game was attended by 62,000 people and was shown on two television networks. My, how things have changed. Today 62,000 people mingle around in the parking lot just to be near the game. One television network pays billions of dollars for the rights to televise the game. Non-football fans watch the game just to see the one million dollars per minute commercials. What did we do before January 15, 1967?
The answer is simple: It doesn’t matter. The Super Bowl is what it is: football is huge in America (especially in the South), and it will continue to grow in popularity and in reach. So we roll with it. We enjoy the game and (some of) the commercials and in the process model to friends, family and co-workers that to us, football is not a religion. We can mix football and faith and keep faith at the top of the list. This is a good message, especially this week…because, let’s face it, it’s not 1967 anymore!

Michael McCullar

Humpty Dumpty Was A Good Egg (Or Not)

 

                   Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

           Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

           All the kings’s horses and all the king’s men

           Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

All in all Humpty Dumpty seems to be a Good Egg. British people use Good Egg to signify good character in a person. In America we use the term to signify an excellent breakfast. Mother Goose, however, never stated that Humpty Dumpty was an egg. In fact, earliest versions have this last line:

           Threescore men and threescore men,

           Cannot place Humpty Dumpty as he was before.

Not only does this not rhyme, it damages the age-old idea of a talking egg dressed in early 1800’s British school clothes. Scholars of such things believe the story was borrowed from an even earlier French riddle and Humpty Dumpty was a tortoise. Another view is that this riddle/rhyme was aimed at the King of England who was a bit on the round side and who lost a strategic war. Fast forward seventy-five or so years to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Humpty Dumpty is portrayed as a contemptuous grammar-fiend who argues with Alice. He is an egg in Carroll’s story, but certainly not a good egg.

Good Eggs may be clumsy and prone to fall down, but they are never argumentative with little lost girls. Good Eggs also likely realize there’s no such thing as, as he was before. Good and Bad Eggs change each day. No one is static. We all exist in a state of flux, exacerbating our fluxness with daily decisions and actions. There’s no going back. Plus, we can’t fix ourselves. Lord knows we try to fix ourselves. The self-help publishing world is a billion-dollar business and growing. No amount of glue and precision can piece us together exactly as we were before.

Here’s the takeaway: God can make us better. If it were possible to be put together exactly as before, would that be preferable to better than before? Hardly. We tumble, we fall and we break (spiritually, emotionally and physically) but God can make us new, whole and better than ever. And that’s no nursery rhyme! 

Michael McCullar

Twittering Faith

JONAH: I now understand claustrophobia. Nineveh is probably a nice place this time of year. My new motto: Listen to God.

ADAM: To all my followers I say, watch those choices…lovely fruit doesn’t always taste as good as you imagine.

EVE: He’s right. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but he is sooo right.

JAMES: You think you had family issues! You should have grown up with my brother.

THOMAS: I think I’m right, but I’m not sure. You may be right, but possibly not. I believe you, but on the other hand, is there any proof?

JOHN: He likes me best. End of story. I’m the fav.

PAUL:  And to think, my fifth grade Hebrew school teacher said I’d never be a writer!

While none of the above tweets can be verified by historians, isn’t it amazing that each famous Biblical person seems so, well, uh, human? God used flawed people to great effect. Flawed people like us. People who took hold of the movement and built God’s church. God still needs flawed people. Flawed people like us.

Michael McCullar

Without Geography You're Nowhere

Some of us are math-people while others are stronger in the social sciences. The same distinctions can be made about our brains. Each of us has a brain that has two sides with one side being dominant to the other. Thus, some of us are left-brained and some of us are right-brained. Left-brained people are very ordered and analytical in a strict way; and, right-brained people tend to be less organized, less structured, but very creative, even a bit out there. All of this brain-trivia to say we each have mental strengths and weaknesses and we are quite unique. Think of yourself as a snowflake and you’ll grasp the analogy. No two snowflakes are exactly the same. Billions of snowflakes fall each winter and each is totally and completely unique. Like us. Totally. Completely. Unique.

Don’t feel badly about a lack of geographical skill and don’t feel dumb when math seems like a foreign language (it is!). We need both and we must work harder on the disciplines that are harder for us to grasp. The same can be said about the organizationally-challenged among us (of which I am perhaps the King, at minimum, a Prince). The uber-organized will shake their well-ordered-heads at your seeming lack of stacking and sorting prowess. Don’t be upset because you do the same things when you see their color-coded To-Do-Lists and their desks staged in perfect symmetry with the constellations. Again, we are different and unique. This was God’s plan. Go with it. Be O.K. with it. If necessary, color-code it and place it in the In-Box of life.

So in this new year stop trying to reinvent the wheel that is your life. You won’t find the magic formula to becoming more or less organized, nor will you suddenly acquire the ability to calculate the square root of massive numbers. If we had those abilities, wouldn’t we have already changed our lives? The key is to set much lower goals. It’s true you won’t hear that one on Oprah, but it is nonetheless a powerful statement. Lower the bar and pick your battles.

And, most importantly, make each choice a truly spiritual one. If each New Year’s Resolution were bathed in faith we would have a much better chance of success. If a life change is also a spiritual life change, the equation is so much stronger. No longer is it simply us making a promise for change, it is God in and through us providing the power to be successful. 

Michael McCullar

Resolute…Maybe…Sort Of

Have you made a resolution for the new year? This is the hot time for resolutions and new starts, especially those focused on life changes. Who hasn’t vowed to lose a few pounds or to better use our time? Early January is also the time to debate the overall effectiveness of resolutions. Do resolutions work? Is it possible to effect change for the long haul? Wouldn’t it be easier to purchase newer, larger clothes?

ProActive Change reports that 45% of all adults make resolutions and an amazing 64% are successful after six months. The other view is championed by Mark Shapiro, author of the book Goal Free Living. Mr. Shapiro doesn’t believe in setting goals in general, much less New Year’s Resolutions, and sees the practice as a waste of time. He states that 3 of every 4 people fail miserably in following through on their resolutions.

So who’s right? Are resolutions a positive practice or a colossal waste of time and effort? The answer is quite subjective and falls within the glass is half full versus the glass is half empty argument. The ProActive Change people believe those who make specific resolutions are 10 times more likely to make positive, long lasting changes in life. The key is to be positive and for Christians, to make all resolutions spiritually based. Nothing new there, scripture teaches a positive mindset and a life lived with God at its center.

Who knows, we may actually be able to lose those pesky ten pounds, or be more patient, or save more money, or…or…well, you get the idea.

Michael McCullar, Resolutely Positive in 2012