Who has played the game monopoly? I can pretty much guarantee no matter your age, you have probably played at least once in your life, right? Growing up, in my family we would have monopoly marathons…me and my cousins would have sleepovers and play it all weekend long, breaking to eat and sleep, picking up where we left off if we got bored and needed a break.. or if grandma kicked us out of the house to blow the stink off us (as she put it.)

Isn’t it funny, no matter how many times we did great at getting park place first, or boardwalk, or all the utilities, even if we collected all the sets of colors, all the blue properties, all the greens, built houses and hotels, at the end of the game…what happened to it? It all ended up back in the box. It all goes back in the box.

Is that not an accurate picture of the game of life? Life on earth is not going to last forever. This is true whether you are a person of faith or not. You may act like the game is going to last forever. But it doesn’t. We all end up in a box sooner or later. The thing we spend our time on, the worth we put into things, is it stuff that just goes back in the box at the end of the game? The everyday idols take over and soon we are so off track, so lost we don’t know what happened!

In recovery we talk a lot about the old life and the new life…this isn’t so different than becoming a Christ follower, in both instances we have the old life and the new life and we aspire to improve that new life, make it better than the old, otherwise, really what is the point? If we continue to do the same habits as we did before our life will not change. I propose a different scenario for 2013. To shift our focus off of things in a box, and onto something different.

In 2nd corinthians 5 verses 16-20 in the message version, the bible states, “Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons!”

A new life grows, it flourishes, erupting forth! Through the holy spirit and our faith and works, a new life flourishes!

How can we create this new life and actually create new habits? Ask yourself what are you valuing?

Jon Ortberg, a pastor and author in Menlo Park, California says in his book, “when the game is over, it all goes back in the box” that nothing else in this world matters except these 2 things:

Who you loved and who loved you?

Nothing else matters, not money, not fame, not how many possessions you own, but who you loved and who loved you. if you can keep that thought in mind, it could change the way you make decisions and change what you value and make lasting life change.