GPBC Blog

It’s the New Year 2016! It’s a new beginning, for some, a fresh start. Old challenges are over and new ones are just beginning. It’s a time to look back once more at the full year of 2015 then head forward into 2016. So where are we headed? It’s so easy these days, especially with social media, to get caught up in all the resolutions, the new fads and diets. Heck, even I am giving the whole paleo diet a shot, but why do we do this every year? Why do we make these wishes, dreams and resolutions? Now don’t get me wrong, I think it is good to challenge ourselves, and I definitely believe that we should never stop dreaming. However, it’s the same thing ever year on December 31. We gather together and stay up late to see those magical numbers 12:00. We sing and cheer as the old is gone and the new is here, and we say “I am going to do this or I am going to do that this year.” But how many of us actually do that? How many of us actually last past January 31st? According to recent stats from Forbes, 46% of us make these new goals each year, but only 8% of those 46% actually achieve these goals in some shape or form. 8% is a rather small number, but yet we keep coming back year after year. To some this looks like the definition of Insanity, which, coincidentally, was the name of a workout program I was going to do a few years ago. (I wasn’t in that 8% that year.) Nevertheless, we keep coming back to this desire to change, this desire to make ourselves better. We want to make ourselves into something great. I think that’s good and something we should be striving for, but maybe we are looking at it all wrong with the diets and work out programs and so on.

About a month ago I was truly struggling with all of this and looking into the New Year trying to figure how am I going to become greater in 2016. It was around that time that Lana’s Grandfather, Wiley Nettleton, passed and went home to Jesus. One thing that Wiley wanted at his memorial was for each member of his family to light a candle and place it next to his. Starting with Grandma she lit hers, then the grandchildren, their spouses and children, then Wiley’s own children and spouses. By the time we had all lit our candles, there were 40 of them. 40 candles shining bright around one. One candle, burning with the light of Christ. That then lit 40 candles with the light of Christ. This was true greatness; this is what true greatness looks like. Those 40 candles were not there because Wiley was famous or rich or what have you. Those 40 candles were not there because it was a big family. No, those 40 candles were there because of one thing, a relationship. Not a relationship with his kids or even his wife, but a relationship with Jesus. I was only blessed to know Wiley for 7 years, but it didn’t take more than the first time meeting him to know where his heart truly laid. You see, everything Wiley did from work to his family all came out of his relationship with Jesus and there were 40 flames of light to prove that on that day. 40 kids and spouses, grandkids and spouses and great grandkids that now follow Christ because of the relationship Wiley had with Jesus.

One man lit 40 lights out of his relationship with Christ. As humans, we strive for this greatness, whatever it may look like to each person, but what if it’s not about making ourselves something more to be great? What if it is about making ourselves less to make someone else great, to make Jesus great in our life? The words of John the Baptist have been stuck in my mind for some time now, specifically those found in John 3 verse 30 which says, “He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.” I think especially in today’s culture it’s a lot about the individual trying to become as big as we can. And we think this can be done with how many likes we get from a post or how much money I can make or even how much weight I can lose. Again, don’t get me wrong, it is great to have many friends, it is good to take care of our bodies and be responsible with our money, but this should not be our focus. One man lit 40 candles for Christ out of him not focusing on himself and not even directly on others but on Jesus. If one man can light 40 lives for Christ, how many in this year and in our lives can we light by becoming less in ourselves and more in Jesus?