Starting the Year Off Right

New Year's Day - what's it mean to you? To be honest, for me, it's literally just another day. I've never been one for new beginnings or for resolutions and the like; it's just not me. I don't even go out of my way to call anyone to wish them a happy new year or anything like that. For many, New Year's Day is about watching football, and I can certainly relate to that being a big football fan myself even though my favorite college football team couldn't beat some high school teams. But anyway, something caught my eye the other day while watching football and has been on my mind off and on for a few days now. I was watching the Clemson vs. Kentucky football game on Friday when Tyler Grisham caught a TD pass for Clemson late in the 4th quarter. Fantastic catch. He even got hurt on the play. While the cameras zoomed in on him lying injured on the ground, I noticed the writing "ROM" and "9:17" underneath his eye written in his eye black. I was quite excited, as I had never seen that Bible verse at a football game before. One of my first thoughts was, "Why is this kid taking a verse about Pharaoh and putting it on his face for the world to see?" Then I looked it up, and it made a lot of sense.

Romans 9:17 - "For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."

The context of course is a difficult passage in which Paul justifies God and his sovereign choices. What's interesting about the verse at hand is that God raised Pharaoh up for a purpose unlike one Christians will face today. Pharaoh was raised up to harm the Israelites so that God's power and name would be known among his people - a phenomenal story and one we shouldn't forget (like some of the Israelites did). What I can take from this verse as I head into a new year is that I too have been raised up to whatever position and place I find myself in today, not necessarily to fulfill whatever dreams I may have for myself but for a bigger purpose -- to be used so that God would show his power and proclaim his name to the world, however small my world may be. So if there's one thing I'll be thinking of as I start my new year off, it will be this. After all, as 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."