Will you set a New Year’s resolution this year? Or several? Maybe shoot for “10 goals in 2010”?

Sounds good, but I’ve noticed—based on personal experience—that resolutions often don’t work because we seem to put more energy into making them than in carrying them out. We often want different results in our lives, but we aren’t willing to make the necessary changes.

But whatever your goal, there’s always something you can do, from a small step to a big move. If you want to lose weight, for instance, you can give up your nightly bowl of ice cream—that’s fairly easy, right? Or you can sign up for “The Biggest Loser.” You just have to know what you’re ready and willing to do.

If your goal is to do more to serve God and love your neighbor, the same principle applies. You already have what you need: a willing heart. Now, you just need to take a step. “God can’t steer a parked car,” to quote my former pastor.

To get you started, here are some examples of big and small things you can do this year to fight poverty:

Simple: Buy a world map and post it where you will see it frequently, find countries mentioned in the news, and pray for people affected by dire poverty, war, or natural disaster.
Advanced: Look into how you can leave your favorite charity in your will.

Simple: Volunteer for a few hours at a local soup kitchen, food bank, or AIDS hospice.
Advanced: Sign up for a short-term missions trip with your church or an organization like Youth With a Mission.

Simple: Use your Facebook profile to share a cause you’re passionate about with your friends.
Advanced: Organize an effort in your church, campus, or with friends to write letters to Congress advocating for increased government funding for poverty alleviation.

Hopefully, some of these ideas will spark an idea for you. If not, keep looking, talking to other Christian servants, and praying for God’s direction.

What will your resolutions be?

This is a time of year when we tell stories—the same stories, over and over again. There’s the one about Rudolph, the reindeer with the radioactive nose who becomes a hero on a foggy Christmas eve. There’s the cranky introvert, Scrooge, who made everybody miserable until a tag-team of ghosts scared him out of it. And let’s not forget the one about another cranky introvert, the Grinch, who tried to steal his neighbors’ holiday spirit.

These are fun tales, but the best story of all, of course, is the account of Christ’s birth. And as many times as I’ve heard it (let’s not do the math), some element of it always amazes me. I’m struck by the unlikely characters: the young, unmarried woman chosen to birth the Son of God; the shepherds, no education or social connections, chosen to be among the first to stand in His presence.

I’m struck by the setting—a place foretold in Scripture, but arranged through a census, of all things. And of course there’s the stable that becomes the makeshift birthing room. Mothers, can you imagine delivering your first baby on a bed of straw?

All of these details tell us something about Jesus. He arrived among us in the humblest of ways, promising from the very start His affinity with the poor, the homeless, the persecuted, the “left out.” He chose people without the right sort of résumés to play a role in His birth—telling us that any of us can love and serve Him. He turned our whole notion of what a king is by coming not to conquer people, but to conquer sin.

The Christmas Story is also our story. We are the same “weary world rejoicing” at our Savior’s birth. The thrill of that day long ago becomes tangible to us right now. This Christmas, may you feel fresh exuberance in the coming of Jesus—and your heart filled to the brim with His life-changing presence.

Ask a child what he or she wants for Christmas, and most have a specific (and long) list. I hear that the sold-out toy this year is an electric hamster.

Jacob, an 8-year-old boy from California, wrote to World Vision about the list he made this Christmas—a special kind of list. Jacob sponsors a child in Bangladesh. After receiving the World Vision gift catalog, Jacob told us, “I wrote down the animals I wanted to buy. I asked mom if she would go with me around the block to collect donations.”

Jacob’s mom, Kimberly, said she was hesitant for Jacob to ask neighbors for donations, but, “If God put this on his heart, I can’t stop him.” She didn’t think they’d get much. She watched on the sidewalk while Jacob went up to the door. He told them about World Vision and the special animals he’d selected from the catalog.

Jacob collected $1,875.

As parents, we want our kids to have a heart for giving, and a heart for being grateful for what they are given. One of the greatest joys of working at World Vision is to see how God gives our donors a desire to give to the poor. It’s what God did long ago in my heart, and I see it everyday in our donors, whether they have the means to give a few dollars or a million.

What does your Christmas list look like? If you are still looking for meaningful gifts, check out our gift catalog at www.worldvisiongifts.org.

Do you ever get frustrated by holiday commercialism? If you’re like me, you might struggle to keep your focus on the true spirit of Christmas.

World Vision sent a small team around the world last month with a mission: If we believe that Christmas is more about Christ’s presence than presents, could we find examples of that?

In Cambodia last week, our team met Leap, a 14-year-old who ran away from an abusive family and was living on dangerous streets before he came to the World Vision center for street children. Leap described how his life changed: “I have enough food to eat; I have clothes; I have everything that I want, especially education.”

What Leap received went much deeper. Motivated by our faith in Jesus Christ, World Vision serves alongside the poor and oppressed as a demonstration of God’s unconditional love for all people. We hope the depth of our faith is evident in our lives, words, and deeds. At the center, the teacher’s Christian faith influenced Leap. “I started to believe that Jesus created the earth and sky and even me,” he said. “[Now], because I believe in Jesus, He’s the one who guides me though all of the hard life.”

To borrow an advertising phrase, what Leap received is priceless. Have you noticed that the best gifts you’ve given (and received) at Christmas have nothing to do with how much they cost, but with how much they mean? Have you ever given a gift that changed someone’s life?

There is still time to celebrate the true spirit of Christmas. What kind of Christmas will you have this year? How can the gifts you give reflect a Christ-centered Christmas?

P.S. Follow the True Spirit of Christmas tour through Ecuador, Cambodia, and Zambia on Facebook (find stories, photos, and videos under the Notes tab). The team heads to Ethiopia next week. And you can find the type of life-changing gifts that Leap received at www.worldvisiongifts.org.

Here we are in the peak shopping season of the year. How long is your list?

I’m trying to approach things differently this year, tough as it is in our consumer culture. A few months ago, Reneé and I had a clean-a-thon after our youngest child left for college. We emptied the attic, closets, and garage, gathering up an astounding volume of stuff we no longer needed. Our Prius looked a bit like the Grinch’s fully loaded sleigh as we headed to Goodwill. There were eight cars—perhaps other empty-nesters?—in line ahead of us at the drop-off.

Afterward, we drove on to Costco. Yes, I need more stuff (pants for an upcoming trip). I missed the irony in this until I saw people mobbing the checkout with carts loaded to the brim. Then it hit me: We have things we just don’t need, yet we continue to buy more all the time.

This would be funny if everybody in the world lived in abundance, but—as I know better than most—that’s not the case. Tragically, many have only the clothes on their backs.

How do we cure this insatiable desire for more stuff? I don’t have any magic answers. My family struggles with this as well. Perhaps it begins with reordering our priorities and paying attention to the disparity between us and the “have-nots” in our world—those Jesus called “the least of these.” I sometimes wonder if I should write, “What would Jesus do?” on the inside of my wallet or on the front of my credit cards.

A great alternative at Christmas is the World Vision Gift Catalog. You can honor friends and family by giving things like goats, clothing, fruit trees, and Bibles to the poor. These gifts address “needs” rather than “wants”—and they won’t end up someday at Goodwill. (See how these gifts are used by following the “Spirit of Christmas Tour” on Facebook.)

Have you given through World Vision’s Gift Catalog? What did you choose, for whom, and how was it received?