There are moments in life that cause you to evaluate things. I’ve recently been through several of those moments. It’s kind of odd that I recently played the role of “Charles Dickens” on stage, because I would describe recent events in my life as “the best of times and the worst of times.” (which is the first line of Charles Dickens French Revolutionary novel, A Tale of Two Cities.)

About a month and a half ago I received a phone call from a good friend of mine in the ministry. He’s an evangelist… dynamic… fun… upbeat.  We took a trip through Germany together several years ago ministering the Gospel. He called because he was in town to speak at a church and wanted to have breakfast. It was out of the blue. We hadn’t talked in quite a while, but Thomas and I have always had the relationship where when we hadn’t talked for a long time, we just picked up where we left off like it was the next day.

Our breakfast started out pleasant and joyful, two friends catching up with one another… laughing about previous experiences… celebrating life’s victories… talking about our families, our ministries.  We shared each other’s struggles and prayed together and left each other’s company. I thought nothing more about it.

I received a phone call three weeks ago that he had shot himself. I cannot begin to describe the shock and grief I felt. My good friend was dead and nothing could bring him back.  All I could think about (other than his family) was what I should have or could have said. Were there warning signs I should have picked up on?

After a while the frustration of not having the answers is overridden by the futlity of asking them. There are certain things we will never know. I will never know what caused my friend to snap and tell himself that there was nothing in this life worth living for. But there was something I could do.  I could do the important things.

Moments like these cause us to evaluate things from an eternal perspective. I’ve determined in 2010 to eliminate the things from my life that don’t have eternal significance. Kelly Green, a mentor of mine and my friend, Thomas, once told me, “There is only one thing worse than failure and that is: succeeding in something that doesn’t matter to God.”

Moments like these cause us to realize what matters and what doesn’t. The people in your life that are petty, bitter, heel biters who once seemed so big and irritating are reduced to their proper perspective and insignificant size.

 The situations that once seemed to be major problems are reduced to their real status: a mere annoyance that is easily dismissed once pride is set aside. It’s amazing the number of situations that go away once you are more concerned with what God thinks about you than what people think about you.

There are other situations that, while they aren’t necessarily bad, they aren’t the best either.  That, by definition, makes them bad. I’ve decide to eliminate those as well. Streamlining your life like that is a scary process. At least it is for me. But there is also a great amount of relief in knowing you are eliminating your best in favor of God’s best.

I have no idea how 2010 will shape up, but I do know this. I will focus on the important, eternal things and ignore the unimportant, temporal things. That’s got to be a good beginning to any year. It is a decision that moves you on to your God given destiny.