You find the relationship between previously unrelated things.

I think that’s one of our biggest challenges when it comes to making and keeping resolutions. It’s the middle of January, the fun and ease of keeping the hopes we started the year with have faded a little. We’ll have to grind it out from here on out. And as we face that season, I think we can benefit from simply seeing the connections between two things.

That’s not encouraged often in society right now. We like to point the finger, to “blamestorm” if you will. But there’s powerful truth in seeing the cause and effect of life, in understanding the consequences of our actions.

I realized one at work a few months ago. I like donuts. That does not make me very unique, donuts are very likable pastries. But one morning at about 10, after a breakfast of donuts, I noticed a sudden wave of exhaustion. I had slept enough. I was actively exercising most days. Every other aspect of my life was monitored and measured, so why his sudden sleepiness? I missed it at first, because it was small. But after some careful consideration, I found the culprit.

The donuts.

I was reacting to the downside of a sugar rush. Sweets had temporarily energized me that morning, a brief but real burst of sugar driven energy was now disappearing. And on it’s heels came what felt like unexpected sleepiness. But it wasn’t unexpected. I had simply missed the relationship between my breakfast and my energy levels.

I didn’t swear off donuts that morning, but I did learn a lesson. Even something small, like a glazed donut can have a consequence.

And I don’t want to miss the relationships that exist in my day, even the tiny ones.

Recently, Dr. Billy Graham showed me how wrong that thought is.

Part of the reason we care about relevance is that right now, people have so many different options when it comes to how they spend their time and their money. Think about it, thirty years ago there were only a handful of magazines available on the stands. You either got Life or Time Magazine or maybe National Geographic. Your options were extremely limited. Those publications didn’t need to worry about being terribly relevant. They were the only game in town. If you wanted a magazine, you had to buy one of those.

But today, your magazine choices are endless. There are dozens if not hundreds of options available and they all have to be incredibly applicable to what their particular niche audience cares about. But what about Dr. Graham? How does he fit into this conversation?

Well, early on in his career, Dr. Graham became just about the only option when it came to evangelists in America. He was the one who prayed with the presidents. He was the one taking God’s message around the world. He was the one on TV. And when he was on one channel, he was shown in 33% of the homes in the country because there were only about three channels at the time. He had the sort of legacy and reach that didn’t require him to worry too much about local relevance. And yet, he did.

A few weeks ago, Dr. Graham told me that months before he went somewhere, he would subscribe to the newspaper of the town he was visiting. For weeks and weeks he would pour over the issues that mattered to the people who mattered to him. He would invest time and thought and prayer into a region long before he got there. Today, we’d call that “building relevance.”

Dr. Graham would probably call that “living compassionately.”

Caring about the things people care about is a great way to show kindness and grace to the people in our lives. Whether that means attending a coworker’s softball game or reading up on an issue you know a family member is deeply invested in. It’s an incredibly easy way to show somebody that they matter to you.

Today’s I want you to do something simple – find one way to be relevant.

Think about the people you interact with everyday. What do they care about and how can you show them you care about it too?

As a member of the Chick-fil-A family, I spend a lot of my time thinking about food. Whether we’re pondering adding a new menu item or looking for ways we can make Chick-fil-A favorites even better, there are always thoughts about food and nutrition running through my head. It’s my job, but it’s also my passion.

At the end of 2008, I started to look at that passion a little differently. I’m a reader and during some research I realized something surprising – one of the keys to healthy living is eating less, more often. Only weeks after one of the year’s biggest meals, Thanksgiving, it sounds a little funny to say this, but it’s true. When you eat one or two big meals a day, the body doesn’t know when it will be fed again. The body isn’t allowed to form a good rhythm and starts to store energy away in the form of fat that can be burned just in case you don’t eat another be meal soon.

Sumo wrestlers are known to use this approach because body mass and weight are a big part of their requirements. But for those of us who don’t wrestle professionally, adding extra fat is a negative.

One solution to this problem is to eat smaller meals every two to three hours. When we do this, instead of storing our energy as fat, our metabolism actually kicks up and starts to supply us with a more consistent supply of energy. The body starts to “learn” the smaller eating intervals and gets into a groove.

It might sound complicated but it’s not. I came up with an easy mantra, “Dine in 09” which helped me remember to dine more often this year. I found that simply adding a snack of peanut butter on apples or bananas during the morning and the afternoon helped me bridge the gaps between the three traditional meals. I have more energy, my weight stays more consistent and I feel better.

Try it in 2010, I think you’ll feel better too.