I can't remember a time when a few days away from the office was more helpful to me. Like most folks, I took some time to reflect on 2007 and to look ahead to the new year. I have been so very blessed in so many ways and, watching my kids relax at a beautiful beach with their mom and grandparents, I recognized again how fortunate I have been. Of course, like most folks, I also thought about some things I need to do in the next year: lose ten pounds, spend more time with my family, excercise more financial restraint...

I thought a great deal more, though, about what more I -- and all of us -- need to do for others. In reflecting, my thoughts turned again, as they often do, to The Millenium Development Goals (MDGs). Adopted by the United Nations in 2000, the MDGs are a 15-year plan that provide a common approach for individuals, companies, congregations, communities and countries to reach out and address the most significant problems of our time. In case they're not familiar to you, here are the main  8 goals:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
2. Achieve universal primary education.
3. Promote gender equality and empower women.
4. Reduce child mortality.
5. Improve maternal health.
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
7. Ensure environmental stability.
8. Develop a global partnership for development.

Each goal has clear deliverables. "Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than one US dollar per day," is one example. Under #8, "Develop further an open trading and financial system that is rule-based, predictable, and non-discriminatory. Includes a committment to good governance, development and poverty reduction..." In other words, if we are in a flat world, let's all play by the same rules and, more important, let's be sure that economic development benefits the many rather than the few.

The MDGs are well designed, clear and, with appropriate support, achievable. To quote my pastor, "Our nation, which has been given so much, ought to be providing strong leadership in this effort. But we can only speak with authority to our elected officials when we ourselves are doing what we are asking others to do."

We offer a prayer about the MDGs in our Church and I'll share a part of it here with you:

"...open our eyes to structures of oppression, and free us from apathy or indifference.

Give us courage to accept our responsibility, wisdom to chart a sound course amid complexity, perseverance to finish our work..

And the gift of your spirit to do what we alone cannot do."

Happy New Year.