At the turn of the new year, most of us are ready to change in some way. Ready to turn over a new leaf or at least rev up a part of our lives that has been sitting quiet for too long. Depending on what you feel led to change, you are either very excited or very hesitant about the upcoming days and weeks. Will you really get up at 5:30am to ___________________________? Will you really stick to your new budget or to your healthy meal plan? Digging deeper, will you really keep a prayer journal and really pray for the people and things God puts on your heart?

For me, I am very excited about putting into action a few financial changes. I know I can stick to a healthy meal with some time carved out for preparations. When I dig deep, I feel compelled to pray daily for the things God cares about inside and outside my world. I feel like it is good for me to seek and grasp onto biblical devotions from men and women around the world. I think it is time for me to serve His suffering children around the world. And the truth is, for all my new year excitement, it will probably be tough getting up before 6am.

If you haven’t thought about any changes for the new year, you probably are experiencing something new or intense in your life and the larger picture can’t inch into your life right now. I’ve been there and I would say that asking yourself a few real questions will send you in the right direction. Like what does God want from me right now? God, what are you saying to me right now or through these circumstances? He knows the intensity of your situation and what you are going through. He is faithful to speak one or two powerful words into your day — and will continue to move and grow with you until you walk out onto the other side.

Among all these things I am hoping for, planning for and looking forward to, a few truths come to mind. I can do nothing without Christ. I have been to enough sad or sinful places outside His loving arms to know that nothing in the new year will come to pass without His will, strength and guidance in the center of it. This truth has been seeping into my heart and life for sometime. However, God has challenged my thinking with yet another truth: God can do impossible things and I should ask Him for those impossible things. I don’t know exactly what my impossible is, but I want to be a part of ending trafficking, starvation and disease around the world. I want to be a part of other’s salvation and growth. I want to be where God wants me to be all of the time. I want my heart to be like His every breathing moment of my life.

I know many of these things are an impossibility in our humanity. But I know this is where He wants me to be. And whatever remains impossible in this life will be perfected in eternity. I think this is the hope we all seek after. I think this is the truth that allows us to seek change and growth and great things … knowing all along that humanity won’t be as it should until Jesus comes. And, as unlikely as heaven may appear to the pessimist, or as irrational as it may appear to the nonbeliever, it is this hope that brings about personal change and lofty aspirations. Both impossible without Jesus and hope for heaven. These are truths we can live by. With all these things in mind, I will see you on the side of impossible — as I am starting to believe, there is no other better place to be.