How you doing?

Back at the beginning of the New Year, I challenged everyone to put together a personal spiritual growth plan. In case you forgot, let me remind everyone what this was all about.

Every year we plan for many different things. We plan for things such as finding our next date or an upcoming wedding date. We plan for our birthdays when we are young, and we plan to forget our birthdays when we wish to be young. We plan for our next job promotion or retirement. We plan to go to the driving range to work on our game because we plan to go play a round of golf later this week. We plan, we plan, we plan....but do you plan for your spiritual growth?

The unfortunate, but common, answer is no. So I challenged everyone to plan for their spiritual growth for 2009. What's your Bible reading plan look like? What books will you read this year to challenge you to grow? Who and where are you serving? How's your giving? How will you improve as a husband, wife, father, mother, son, daughter or friend?

My quarterly assessment is a "B". I give myself this "grade" simply because I haven't been tracking everything as well as I should have so I can't say for sure how well I've done on some things (like serving a neighbor every week). I kept the tracking up for Jan/Feb but then started slacking.

Here's what I can tell you (and please don't take this as bragging because it's not intended to be).

- By God's grace I've memorized 2 books of the Bible since January and I'm starting books 3 and 4 in May.
- I've read 26 books besides my Bible since January (I'll probably finish 2-4 more books this next week).
- My Bible reading has included reading through Acts, Revelation, Romans, Philemon, Jude and Matthew each 4-5 times (plus my through the OT plan).
- I've preached or taught 10 times over the past 4 months and I'm looking at another 16 or so opportunities coming up in the next 4 months.
- God has really used my wife to make me be a more hospitable neighbor and we've had numerous occasions with 9 or more kids from the neighborhood over at our house at one time (and yes it was a zoo).
- I've played "Trouble", "Chutes and Ladders" and "Checkers" more times that I can remember with my two boys.

Would I have done everything listed above if I hadn't made a plan? Maybe, but I can tell you that having a plan has challenged me to stay focused with how I spend my time.

Writing to the church in Ephesus, Paul gives the Christians there this bit of advice. "Therefore, be very careful how you live, not as unwise but as wise taking advantage of every opportunity because the days are evil. For this reason do not be foolish but be wise by understanding what the Lord's will is." Eph 5:15-17

I challenge you with the same words. Be wise with how you spend your limited time here on earth. Not as unwise but as wise by not hoping to grow this year in your relationship with God but by planning for it.

Josh