On Drawing Nearer to God

Tonight, I will write about my spiritual goals for 2006, and my connection with God now that the first year of law school is drawing to a close. The second post was delayed due to exams.

I have had three fundamental spiritual goals this year: get more involved with church and serving others, increase my daily communication with God, and work on godliness.

1) Probably the best thing I can do to help increase my involvement with church is to do a better job of scheduling. In the fall, I plan to try and attend church, or Bible study, twice a week-the regular Sunday service, and then I would like to find a small group where I can become a regular and get to know other Christians my age with whom I can grow and have fellowship.

As of now, I am planning to continue with a small group at Central Vineyard, a local church I discovered recently. I have only been able to go once so far because of exams, but I am looking forward to getting to know everyone.

Actually, my church attendance is tied into one of my professional goals-doing a better job of staying up to date on my outlines throughout the semester. If I can do this, I will have more time available for Sunday church and Bible study in November, when final exams and the App Ad oral argument are closing in.

I also plan to find more time to serve others, law-related or not. This may include using my knowledge as a law student to serve through a legal clinic, or I may volunteer through the Salvation Army or a local church or organization. I am going to continue what I am doing now, and work to do even more.

2) I have made progress on my prayer life, but want to continue improving. The main thing I want to focus on for the rest of the year is being more diligent about praying in the morning. I need to make it a habit-get up, then pray before breakfast. Even better, if I can establish this as a matter of course each morning, I can start having my devotional time in the morning instead of evening, which will make it easier to remember and apply to my daily activities. Right now, I only manage morning prayer about once or twice a week.

For the rest of the year, I am going to try reading through one or two books of the Bible a month-not necessarily in order, but all of them eventually. A few days ago, I started off by reading the first chapter of Mark. After I finish Mark, I will read Jeremiah.

3) The last goal encompasses a series of changes I need to make, and continue to make, to draw closer to the Lord. Here are a few:

Better stress management: I am going to start enjoying law school, and not let fear and anxiety get the best of me anymore. In general, be more proactive, since "the righteous are bold as a lion" (Proverbs 28:1 KJV).

Develop hobbies and interests: pursue things like Civil War history, singing, and writing poetry. This will give me a more positive attitude generally, and make connections with others.

More wisdom and shrewdness: one mistake I made this year was getting wrapped up in a lot of religious/political debates I should have, in retrospect, avoided. I hope I can reconcile with the people I have treated wrongly, and help make up for some of the mistakes I made this year. From now on, I plan to be much more discerning in what I say and how I act.

These are some of the spiritual goals I intend to pursue this year. I will write again soon, on my social goals for 2006, and what I intend to improve on and accomplish.