Catch Fire in 2014

A friend of mine posted this article on Facebook and I got sucked into reading it at 6AM Thursday morning when I was supposed to be getting ready for work. It’s long, but despite the unfortunately harsh language its well worth the read. I’ll wait.

To put it bluntly, it called me out.

I have been guilty of being that annoying person who prays for people (which, as a Christian, I believe is a very important thing to do) but sometimes fails to also be the change that those people need. I work with a fellow Christian who instead of going home on a cold night and watching TV or playing Tetris on her computer, goes to her church to watch over local homeless people so that they have a safe, warm place in which to sleep. She then gets up and goes back to work the next day, because calling Code Blue is dependent on the temperature outside, not on whether it’s a holiday or volunteers have day jobs they need to get to. These homeless people may not smell so great and possibly suffer from alcoholism or mental illness, but she names them friends and feels privileged and blessed to know them.

That’s fruit.

What am I really doing that shows I was even here?

These aren’t New Year’s Resolutions – I find that tradition a little pointless and silly. They’re just my goals for 2014 in no particular order:

• Get paid for having written something.
• Lose 50 more pounds.
• Learn HTML.
• Get involved in ongoing service to my community for the sole benefit of people other than me.

We’re not in this world very long. When we’re gone what will remain?

To use a very silly example – most people are at least aware of the song Friday by Rebecca Black. This is not a good piece of music nor a well executed video, but when Ms. Black is 90 she will be able to laugh with her grandchildren over that video she made when she was sixteen that actually got sixty-three million hits on You Tube. Whether it’s good or not she put herself out there and made something. She’s young, she’s learning, is there a chance that one day she’ll actually make a piece of music that’s enjoyable to listen to beyond humor value? *shrug* Why not?

Anyway, what have I done to put myself out there? What have you done?

In my writing classes my fellow aspiring authors love to trash Stephanie Meyers, the creator of the Twilight series. But Ms. Myers wrote a book series that was beloved by enough people to get it turned into a movie series too. Trash her all you want, she’ll go ahead and laugh all the way to the bank.

And what right do I have to trash what she created when I haven’t yet attempted to do better?

I adored The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Its sequel, Catching Fire, puzzled me and the third installment in the trilogy, Mockingjay, infuriated me. However the series is her creation, and if Ms. Collins wants to do the literary equivalent of creating a beautiful work of art and then utterly destroying it then that’s her right.

And again, who am I to criticize when I’ve failed to attempt any better?

Cheers and blessings to all for 2014! I hope your year is filled with positive growth spiritually, mentally and physically.

I want to do more than just wish the world was a better place this year. I want to try to make it one.