Chardon United Methodist Church

Making plans for your life in the new year? Could it be that God already has a plan for you and is patiently waiting for you to make that plan a reality?

When one consider how everything seems to have a purpose in nature (atoms, genes, plants, animals, etc.), it makes a sense to believe that each of us has a purpose as well. On the other hand, if all of creation seems to have just happened without any reason, then this means our minds and spirits must have no reason or purpose as well. How can we trust them?

But believers trust that there is a great Intelligence that brought everything into existence.

There is a Mind and Heart at the center of all creation. If that’s the case, then life can only make sense when we seek what the Creator has in mind for us.

Jesus, who knows the Mind and Heart of God better than anyone who ever lived on Earth, once said to the erring Peter: “You are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” (Mark 8:33, NRSV).

Setting our minds on human things can get us into trouble. That’s why it often seems we live in a crazy mixed-up world. How can life ever be fulfilling, without the purpose God has for that life?

To set one’s mind on divine things leads us to consider that one vow we should take seriously for the new year. Your will, Lord. Your will and nothing else.