New Year of Love

It’s a little late, but it still applies: Happy New Year!

Did you make any resolutions? Have you already broken some of them? Oh well . . . I have some goals, like usual. The biggest, and it’s probably not measurable, is to allow the Spirit of God to continue his work of conforming me into the image of Jesus (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Here is a helpful thought from a Kentucky Monk who lived and died a while ago. He really gets at the heart of transformation and heart of changing the world.

So instead of loving what you think is peace, love others and love God above all. And instead of hating the people you think are warmakers, hate the appetites and the disorder in your own soul, which are the causes of war. If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed—but hate these things in yourself, not in another.

– Thomas Merton in New Seeds of Contemplation

That’s worth thinking about all year long! My prayer is for 2014 to be an amazing year of living in, and living out, God’s love.