A Simple Thing With Meaning

  Like most preachers I keep a record what I have preached and where. Each year about this time I make a lined chart on which to make my records, put in the dates of Sundays and anticipate another year of preaching. I think I have records that go back over fifty-three years now and into the fifty fourth.

  The making of this little chart expresses my plans, hopes, expectations and desires for the coming year. Whether I shall fill all those dates I cannot tell. But I look forward to the coming days and this also provokes me to give extra thought to the subjects that I will try to preach. No, I do not select all my sermons now. This is a record of what has been done. Some select all their sermon topics for the whole year. Good for them. I never could do that.

  It is not a bad idea to give time and thought to our future without anxiety or getting overboard about it. But many good things are not accomplished because planning is inadequate.

  You might consider taking a look into 2006 and see what you hope and should do. It may prove to be one of the best exercises of the year. You still have a few days of 2005 to give it some thought. What do you think?