More of These

 As we roll on into 2025 it is commonly accepted that folks will compile a short list of resolutions that they intend to apply to their day in and day out lives. Exercising regularly, changing dietary habits, slowing down on smoking, stepping up on work habits,  and turning the electronic devices off most likely top our lists. Well, I would not be forthcoming if I didn't admit that I too have set some goals for change in 2025, some physical (getting rid of about 10 lbs. and keeping it off!), and some transformative in more of a spiritual sense. Whatever it is that you have listed as a "New Year's Resolution" it will only be as successful as you make it a part of who you are and how you do you. It's kinda like that old saying, "what you put in is what you will get out". In 2025, my prayer is that you will make an investment into making goals that will not only impact you, but goals that will impact others through the work to improve you and your walk with God. 

Trimming off 10 lbs. will obviously be of benefit to me personally. The health benefits alone make it a no-brainer, but more than that the better physical condition I am in the better capable I am of working without experiencing adverse physical limitations, the better my endurance will be, and the better I feel about myself the more likely I will be to engage myself in activities and settings where I can learn, grow, and serve others. You see, if I only look at decreasing my weight for my personal benefit, then I'm the only one that I am accountable to thus lowering the stakes on sticking to my resolution. Placing the opportunities to serve others and benefit others through my service raises the stakes and increases my role and responsibility in ensuring I stick to my plans. Not that trimming off 10 lbs. isn't important to me, but my intrinsic goals far outweigh any self weight loss goals I could set anytime, beginning of the year or not! 

I have landed on two such goals as we embark on the wonder of a new year filled with myriad opportunities to serve others and provide a glimpse of the One who modeled the example on what true service looks like during our own daily walk. Kindness isn't always considered a quality that tops the list in new year resolutions, but after I heard a radio disc jockey provide the following definition I decided to up my kindness ratio in 2025. Paraphrasing the definition "Kindness is lending your strength when someone is in need." Now you can place that in simple terms such as opening the door for someone when their arms are full, that is the kind thing to do, but when I heard this definition it hit me that I need to be on the lookout each day, seeking opportunities to show kindness to someone who is in a position of need. Homelessness creates a scenario of great need. Regardless of why someone is homeless it is not my job to judge them, but it is my responsibility to show them kindness because they are definitely in need. Lending strength to a homeless person could mean utilizing my financial ability to provide a hot meal or an extra blanket, but it could also mean serving hot meals at a shelter, working to expand mental health services in my community, or just acknowledging a homeless person exists and calling out their name to God for deliverance from the situation that has created this situation in their life. That is just one example, kindness can be shown in any and all aspects of your life. On the job, with your family, or even in the passing of someone on the side of the road stranded by a flat tire or other mechanical breakdown. Mark Twain is credited with having said, "Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see." May your life be filled with opportunities to show kindness to those in need in 2025. 

Coupled with kindness I want to do more to sacrifice self over others. The United States Air Force motto is "service before self", this embodies the idea that our professional and personal lives should be more focused on how we can help others rather than how we can be supported by others. We can sacrifice our time, our means, and our personal wants for the good of others. In the same vein as kindness, when we sacrifice we take our strengths, skills, and assets and lend them to someone else that is in need. Doing what is expected does not necessarily constitute a sacrifice, to sacrifice we must do something that is out of the ordinary, and in some cases that sacrifice borders extraordinary. In our reference to the USAF service before self lends itself to the ultimate sacrifice, a trait that members of the armed forces in general accept when they sign up for duty. Jesus is our true example of sacrifice. In the Gospel of John, Jesus stated that, "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends." John 15:13. I'm not expecting anyone to go out and physically lay down their life for the sake of someone in need, but the essence of sacrifice is that we are giving something up that makes us comfortable, for the sake of someone who is less fortunate and in need of what we can offer. If we give to someone in need out of abundance that isn't really a sacrifice. If, on the other hand, we don't have an abundance and we still give to someone in need that becomes a sacrifice. 

I have chosen kindness and sacrifice as two key attributes that I want to increase in my life in 2025. Both of these are direct examples of service before self and both require giving away something to someone in need. Being nice to those who are nice to us isn't necessarily increasing our kindness quotient. And doing things that are expected of us doesn't really qualify as making a sacrifice. Both require giving of oneself out of a spirit of service to others in spite of our own needs. I am choosing kindness and sacrifice and I invite you to join me in giving more of ourselves in those areas in 2025, but please don't limit your choices to something that I feel I need to do. Whatever it is that you can do that will benefit others more than it will impact you, go for it! Find your area to serve or who knows, your decision may be to serve in 2025. My prayer is that God will give you more, more opportunities to give, to serve, and to sacrifice. Less of me, and more of these! 

Coach Carter