We’re half-way through the year.  Tonight is like a Half-New-Year’s-Eve.  Tomorrow starts a brand new half-year!  What did you resolve to do this year?

I get it. My resolutions didn’t all work out.  But the great news is that this isn’t December.  It’s the end of June!  There are still six months to re-calibrate and restart the year.  Even if you’ve given up on becoming the person you thought you wanted to be this year…God has NOT.  His desire is to restore you to the person he created you to be.

Isaiah 43:18-19

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

No, we don’t perceive it.  But we can learn how.  So tonight, pull out your January resolutions.  Figure out which ones you still care about.  Put them on your calendar, and then do something RADICAL tomorrow (and the rest of the year).

• When the alarm goes off
• When the noise of day invades your sleep
• When the demands on your time are queueing up before you even get up

In that moment, just have a short conversation with God.  Try something like this:

“Good morning, Heavenly Father.  Thank you for the gift of sleep last night.  And thank you for the gift of today.  Thank you that you’re bigger than any problems I’ll face today.  Help me discover what you have for me today.  Help me listen to your voice.  Help me reflect your grace and love into one person’s life today.”

Tomorrow is the going to be the beginning of the rest of your life.  Let God do a new thing.  Make 2016 the year you’ll never forget.

-Pastor Mark

P.S. One new thing you might want to try this summer is to help our PowerHouse ministry with their summer outreach project.  Here’s what Bob Attrill, our Children’s Ministry Director says:

“Our outreach for the summer in PowerHouse is, “Soles4Souls.” We are basically doing a shoe drive for the entire summer June 26th-Sept4th. Since 2006, Souls4Souls has collected and distributed around 26 million pairs of shoes to people in need. The shoes reach people in 127 countries around the globe and in all 50 states here in the U.S. My guess is most of us never really stop to think about what it would be like to not own a pair of shoes or at least own a pair that weren’t riddled with holes.

We are going to run with this in PowerHouse and ask kids to donate any gently used or new shoes they or anyone in their family may have. Can be shoes of any size or style. I’m guessing most of us have a pair or two that we don’t wear or are headed to Goodwill or the Salvation Army. I know I do.

So bring your gently used shoes anytime Sunday this summer and drop them off to help PowerHouse help Soles4Souls.