burn out bright

Christmas has come and gone. So has New Year's Eve. So has our 4-day cruise. So has my two weeks of glorious vacation time.

Usually, after big events like these pass, I experience a "post-event" melancholy where I become sad and disappointed that it's over. I've found that this is rather useless, because then I tend to miss the full joy that the event brought in the first place.

However, it seems that for once I am actually content with all of the holidays and vacation coming to an end. I enjoyed every moment with family and friends over the last few weeks, but I must admit that I am relieved in a way to be done with all the hurry and flurry and look forward to getting back into the normal flow of things.

As for New Year's resolutions, I don't have a long list this year. Of course, I could definitely come up with a long list as I've done in the past, but I've realized that perhaps it would be more effective to have one main goal for myself that could apply to several areas of my life. In the last few days I've pondered what I really want to accomplish this year and the answer came to me in the lyrics of a new song off of the new Switchfoot album:

if we've only got one try
if we've only got one life
if time was never on our side
before i die i want to burn out bright




In essence, I want to start living more purposefully. I feel that I have been stagnent in my spiritual walk for too long and I'd like to take steps to change that---studying the Bible and praying consistently would be a good place to start. I want to take action in serving others and seek out opportunities where I can do so, instead of just sitting around and thinking about it. I want to be purposeful in my friendships, in figuring out what I want my next career move to be, and in constantly pursuing a stronger marriage. I don't want to get stuck in the mud of complacency, I want to be able to say that in 2007, I moved forward.