Accountability...

Varying emotions and feelings are stirred up by this single word.
Accountability.
Down it's path we find - humility, brokenness, responsibility, truthfulness, and ultimately sanctification and transformation. The destination is one we all desire...but the route is sometimes too difficult for our pride to endure.
Throughout the ages, God's people have all struggled with this method of personal holiness. Being accountable to anyone is a complete admittance that I am not capable of handling life's pressures on my own. That I am a a sinner who's heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. It is a vulnerable stripping of whatever pretenses I have allowed others to believe about me and it is the bare naked truth of who I really am, with no excuses or rationalizing. It is knowing that I am simply a sinner redeemed by God's grace...and nothing more. All value, worth, acknowledgment belongs to the Lord and is given to me through His Son.
Too often, I have compared myself to others and dismissed myself as passable. Using their righteousness as a measuring stick rather than the Word. But a searing conviction in this area has repeatedly been drawn to the surface. God is calling me closer, higher, deeper, farther...and the only way to get there is to be honest about my sin. To keep short accounts with Him and confess them for what they really are.
Thus, as this new year beckons me forward, I have made out a list of very specific questions. Questions that can not be answered with teetering sincerity. Only the truth will be accepted. There is no hiding once these are placed into the very trustworthy hands of my accountability partner. No turning back to comfortable complacency!
The year of 2010 will be one of undeniable truth. I pray that it has its lasting effects in my life, my home, and my crown in heaven!