A couple of weeks ago, I read about a new e-mail service that allows you to send yourself an e-mail that will be delivered in the future. If you want, you can use www.FutureMe.org to e-mail the person you'll be, say, three months, three years or even 30 years from now.

If you're like me, you can probably relate to a service like this. It would be a great way to check and see if you've met some goals or plans you've set for yourself. Maybe, for instance, you're trying to spend more time with God, to work out more often, or to be more faithful to your church or youth group.

As I thought about my own goals for this new year, I decided to write a letter to myself. I'm going to have it delivered in June. I'd like to share it with you now:

Dear Future Me,

Well, it's six months into 2006, and I hope you're making the most of it.

At the beginning of this year, instead of setting a whole bunch of unattainable goals, you did a good job of having realistic goals and taking steps toward planning for them. I hope you're still working on those good things, and that you've made some progress. If you haven't, or if you're not as far long as you wanted to be, I hope you're not beating yourself up about it. Just think about where you've succeeded, where you're falling short, and what you need to do to get or stay on track.

You said you wanted to learn more about loving the people around you. I hope you are doing that, and not just thinking about doing it. You believe serving people is important. So I hope you're continuing to find ways to serve people. You talk about forgiveness and reconciliation and peace, and I hope you've taken steps toward living those things.

My hope is that you can see yourself growing in fellowship with other Christ-followers and that you're reaching out to people who don't know him. I also hope you're growing closer to God, and that you can see the fruits of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control—in your life. Those are good signs of God's work in your heart.

Finally, I hope you're thinking more about grace. You can be really hard on yourself, and that's not always a good thing. Learn to ease up on yourself when you need to. Learn to forgive yourself when you make mistakes. Remembering that God showers you with grace will help you to extend grace to yourself and others.

In any case, I hope you'll take a few moments to sit down and think about these things. Maybe you can also pray for God's guidance about the next six months of the year. No matter what, you can believe that he cares about you, and that he's happy to help you grow in faith and life.

Sincerely,

Past Me