By Charles Christmas

Some of you know about my nine different tailor-made caps with a significant scripture portion on the front of each. I often choose a different one to wear each weekday.

Lately I have worn the same one daily: “Renewed day by day.” This one states my goal and desire on a daily basis. But it has taken on a wider meaning for the past 30 days, for that is how long I have been in a battle against pneumonia.

I will not describe my journey, but after collapsing in my house on the fifth day, it has been a process of renewing of my body. Including emergency room, hospital staff, four weeks of antibiotics, ministry of friends and family and prescribed physical therapy at Cornerstone Fitness as my support system, thank the Lord I am strong and feeling great after being “renewed day by day.”

Today, Feb. 20, is my 87th birthday. Monday, in an e-mail birthday note from one of my many readers in Tennessee, I was referred to Isaiah 40:28-30. “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even the youth grow tired and weary, and the young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.” I had already written my article for today, but God used that e-mail to change my direction. (By the way, birthdays are wonderful, but too many of them will kill you!)

The emphasis of this article relates to my personal five “Priority Focus Commitments” for 2014. I list them in priority sequence beginning with No. 2: family, church, my weekly column and my neighborhood. Do you wonder what number one is? It is me—self! I will and do give first priority to my personal relationship with my Lord and to my personal health. Why? Because effectiveness in my last four priorities depend upon No. 1. If I am not renewed in my relationship with my Lord day by day through Bible meditation and prayer, I will not be prepared to focus on my other responsibilities and priorities. Whatever I do must be done through this body of mine. And whatever I can do to support the health of this temple of the Holy Spirit, I am responsible to do it. The Bible says, “Take heed unto yourself.”

The original scripture portion for this particular cap comes from 2 Corinthians 4: 16-18. It is my faith, action and goal for life. “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

Therefore, my desire is to be renewed day by day until that day when God makes all things new.

—Charles Christmas is a religion columnist for The Clanton Advertiser. His column appears each Thursday.