It’s that time of year, again. Time for the mark of another year gone, and a new one on it’s way. I have been trying to work my way through Michael Hyatt’s “Life Plan” but am still in the “reading” stage. I have most of my thoughts in place, just haven’t made them into a collective organized format yet.
I use to never make so-called “new year’s resolutions”, and for the most part, I don’t. They are so cliche, and are usually not reasonably obtainable, so I just didn’t make them. I do however set goals, and make continuous strides after them, or adjust them as plans change. That is basically what Hyatt’s Life Plan is about.
Looking back, 2011 was a tough year, but I did do, or continue towards, several things that were on my long term list. I took 67,000 images (that doesn’t include deleted images) in 2011, and trying to look back and pick a “favorite” out of 67,000 shots is impossible. I couldn’t even pick a favorite of mine, so that’s me, sitting in Entebbe Airport, waiting for our KLM flight from Uganda to Amsterdam. My two trips this year to Uganda were marks that altered my direction and focus, and in a strange turn towards the end of the year, helped solidify my reasons for continuing to pursue my seminary work.
Looking at what possibly lies ahead for 2012 is hard. There are certainly highs, and lows, on the way, but I will make the greatest attempt this year to give any worry about those things that make up life’s trials to the Lord once and for all. I hope I will complete the requirements to earn my first graduate degree in seminary, and develop in those areas I have identified for 2012. Most of all, to strive to use the time I’m giving to the very best of my ability. Not doing the things that don’t need to be done, and focusing on those that do.
When looking at the New Year, these two verses stood out to me earlier this morning, and I love how they mold together into a cohesive unit. Matthew 5.6 and 5.48 which says: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Happy New Year everyone, and War Eagle from the Georgia Dome tonight where we will most likely still be when the new year comes to our part of the world.
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I am making my New Year’s resolutions early this year (actually I usually don’t make any but I might this coming year), and one of those is to take at least a photo a day for a year. In the past many years as a photographer I have always wanted to put together a daily photo blog that would consist of, at least, one photo a day taken from the previous day. You probably hear this all the time if you are inspired to advance a creative side of your mind, but that doesn’t make it any less true. If you want to be a better poet, try to write a poem a day, if you want to be a better photographer, take at least one image a day, etc.
So, I have setup scottfillmer.net to be that place. Setup using a custom Tumblr blog, it will serve as a quick single daily photo post, and starting around December 1st (I do my annual things from December 1 to November 30 instead of January 1 to December 31) I will be posting a single photo from the previous day. It will be unique material to that site, not duplicated over here, so jump over there every so often to see what’s going on.
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2009 was a busy year that saw a lot of changes in our household. Throughout each month of each year for the past 15-18 years or so I have taken photos every chance I get, but it has only been in the past several years where I have taken photos of just about everything my wife and I do as we go about the year. This puts a new perspective on the year when you look back at an entire year of photos and see what all we were able to do.
People often think you need special equipment or expertise to be a good photographer, and in some cases that is probably true, but for every day events, any picture is better than no picture. Most cell phones have cameras now and they are around the 2MP range which is certainly good enough to shoot a passing smile. In fact, a good majority of the photos you will see in the video below came right out of my iPhone camera. It has taken some practice but I have gotten very good results with just using my iPhone camera, and there are many photographers that have made a point to compose a gallery here and there using their iPhone camera.
This video below is a combination of about 1,200 photos over about a 5 minute period, hope you enjoy it, happy new year to everyone. If you want to watch the video in a larger window just click 2009 Year End Photo-Video.
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This past Sunday we were privileged to have Brian bring the message to us and he spoke around John 3:30, He must increase, but I must decrease. It was a thought-provoking message but it left the details on how we are to carry this out in our lives something for us to think about and tackle on our own. There were and are many applications for this, but I started chasing my rabbit trying to think about why, and somehow landed on the song, “When Love Comes to Town” by U2. If everything we do and have comes from the Lord, and our actions are to glorify the Lord, then how do we do this.
To do this, we must not take His glory for ourselves. Not something very easy to accomplish, especially when you take today’s culture and modern technologies into consideration. We do almost everything for ourselves, with ourselves in mind.
Driven and drilled into us from day one in our great country (for those who live in the U.S.), life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which sometimes seems like the pursuit of ourselves. The American dream, to own a house, 2 cars, have 2.4 kids, a good career, and a full 401k. For some reason, “when love comes to town” reminded me of the reason for Christmas and even moving on into Easter, and the love He showed for all of us when He became flesh, and is why He deserves the glory.
The point of this message (at least in my interpretation) was to bring the Christmas season series to a close and bridge into our new and upcoming series on bringing our spiritual life alive, but I think we use the example we were given and use love to accomplish this. For God to increase, I must decrease, for me to decrease, I must do this out of love. To me, matters of faith start from the heart.
I was there when they crucified my Lord
I held the scabbard when the soldier drew his sword
I threw the dice when they pierced his side
But I’ve seen love conquer the great divideWhen love comes to town I’m gonna catch that train
When love comes to town I’m gonna catch that flame
Maybe I was wrong to ever let you down
But I did what I did before love came to town
As the year comes to a close, I always start thinking about a recap of where, what, when, and how of this year and what is coming up next year. This year and leading into next year, to bring my spritual life “alive”, I must decrease. [I am not sure why we only do this at year-end instead of all year-long, but it just seems like a natural break where we mark a point in time that has an end and a beginning at 12:00 midnight at on December 31st.]
Some random thoughts on how I can try to extend this into next year:
- read more
- do less for my reasons, more for His reasons
- work as if no one will ever know or see the results of my labor but God Himself
- remember I am working for His glory, not any one person
- give more :: time, money, effort, support, attention
- give up more :: control, of self…
- don’t give up when… I feel like it
- appreciate :: time, life more (not to be confused with Time Life)
- serve more
- make a don’t do list, and don’t do the things on my don’t do list
I like top ten lists but all the items above can be narrowed down to “love”, and I did what I did before love came to town. Happy New Year everyone.
5 Great Thought Provoking Daily Devotionals for the New Year
I started looking around for a new daily devotional for 2012, and I ended up coming across too many. I came across some really good ones I haven’t read yet, but now have always had all intentions to read. This list, to some, may be a little too high church for them, but the wisdom put forth into these devotionals is pretty amazing, written by some pretty amazingly committed Believers.
I will state the obvious that none of these below will take the place of reading the inspired Word, the wisdom placed into God’s own book far outweighs any of the books below, so if there is only time in the day to read one book, for only a short period of time, make it the Bible instead of any of these books below, and I’m sure each of the authors below would agree with that. With that said, the best online Bible reading plans are located on YouVersion, so check those out as well.
The list below is all linked over to the Kindle version on Amazon, but each has a corresponding paper version. I just gave up on trying to have books shipped, the availability, and usually lower cost, of Kindle books just far outweighs the hassle of paper now, to me, for the most part anyway (see Printed Books vs iPad or Kindle eBooks and the Future of Books from back in March, or this I wrote back in 2009).
I decided to choose the “updated version” of this classical devotion since it is better annotated on the Kindle version at this point than the “traditional” version (first published in 1935). I think there is a lot of value in the original language of the traditional version, but having read neither in full, I decided to go with one that has a little easier language to start. Oswald Chambers was gifted with extracting the essence of biblical principles and condensing them into potent, thought-provoking, and life-changing devotions.
They don’t take a lot of time to read, but they can infuse you with the timeless truths of the Bible. In this edition of My Utmost for His Highest, you get updated-language daily devotionals that have become an enduring favorite because Oswald Chambers used his spiritual gifts so wisely and generously. Compiled from lectures given at the Bible Training College in London, to nightly talks in an Egyptian YMCA during World War I, My Utmost for His Highest will lend a powerful spiritual dimension to your walk with God. (some excerpts via Amazon)
The Upper Room is a publication that is, in part, produced by the United Methodist Church. The Upper Room is a global ministry, which is technically interdenominational, dedicated to supporting the spiritual formation of Christians seeking to know and experience God more fully. While they now produce far more than The Upper Room devotional, this devotional publication has stood the test of time more so than many other devotionals. For more information about their ministry you can visit them at upperroom.org.
This devotional is a fascinating find to me. It is a publication that C.S. Lewis never put together himself, but editors have taken pieces of his writings to place them in one daily reader. This book of daily readings, culled from C.S. Lewis’s major nonfiction writings like The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity, Miracles and A Grief Observed, might be called the thinking Christian’s devotional: it is deeper and meatier than most other devotionals on the market.
With 366 entries (including one for Leap Year) that are typically one or two paragraphs each, Klein has managed to distill some of the most memorable passages from Lewis’s famous corpus. Interestingly, she includes a bit of Lewis trivia for each day of the year, and often pairs the reading with the biographical information: for example, we learn that on March 21, 1957, Lewis married Joy Davidman Gresham, and the entry for that day is about their marriage. Three separate indices list the sources by book, by day and by selection title or theme. (some excerpts via Amazon)
This is the classical Bonhoeffer daily reader. Bonhoeffer put together this set of devotionals upon the closing of his seminary, Finkenwalde, when it was declared illegal and closed by the German Gestapo. The treatise contains Bonhoeffer’s thoughts about the nature of Christian community based on the common life that he and his seminarians experienced at the seminary and in the “Brother’s House” there. Bonhoeffer completed the writing of Life Together in 1938. Prayerbook of the Bible is a classic of Christian spirituality. In this theological interpretation of the Psalms, Bonhoeffer describes the moods of an individual’s relationship with God and also the turns of love and heartbreak, of joy and sorrow, that are themselves the Christian community’s path to God. (some excerpts above are from Amazon)
This collection of inspirational writings from Dietrich Bonhoeffer is drawn from his many works and presented here as a series of daily meditations to last throughout the year. Organized under monthly themes, these prayers, sermons, meditations, letters, and notes offer readers a new glimpse at how Bonhoeffer understood the meaning of faith and discipleship. Featuring selections from classic works such as The Cost of Discipleship and Letters and Papers from Prison, this set of writings follows the church year, making it ideal for year-long devotional use by readers seeking to be challenged and enlightened by Bonhoeffer’s call to find God at the center of their lives. (some excerpts via Amazon)
I guess this is where it gets really high church, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of value in this book. This book, especially this highly annotated copy on Kindle, provides everything from daily prayers to events on the Christian calendar. The Kindle TOC (table of contents) in this book is so extensive, making it quite an impressive Kindle book, and it’s price can’t be beat at only $2.99.
This is the Episcopal version of the Catholic Missal (which is absent on Amazon Kindle in the same version as above), and the book that the Episcopal Church uses in its services. I have only recently been introduced to this book, and it has an amazing amount of wisdom. This Kindle version contains both versions from 1979 and 1789, which contains The Book of Common Prayer, Administration of the Sacraments, Other Rites, Ceremonies of the Church, and The Psalter or Psalms of David. Worth the read no matter what your denomination.
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