A Year Worth Living

I know that I have life

only insofar as I have love.

I have no love

except it come from Thee.

Help me, please, to carry

This candle against the wind.

--Wendell Berry

No life without love. This is a good place to begin the year. After all, I didn’t begin the year with a clean house or a grand adventure or a neatly typed out list of resolutions. I didn’t begin as I should have, with Christ at the center. With one whole day of 2012 behind me, I have already marred the year with selfishness, sinful thoughts, and thoughtless words. So much for a clean slate.

There is much to anticipate in this new year, and if I am not careful, much to fear. Much at which to fail. I would be lying to say I do not have resolutions, even if I have not called them such. But what are any of these things without love? So easy to treasure tasks above people.

I want to live this year. And there is no life without love. I want each moment to be love-drenched, each task to be thoughtful and purposeful, and never more important than those for whom I do them.

No love except it come from Thee. That each moment be rooted in Him so the love will flow down.

Love never fails. If I fail at everything else, if all my plans and projects come to nothing, but I spend the year soaking up His love, filling each moment and word and work with the love that brings life, then this will be a year worth living.

Help me to carry this candle against the wind.