How do you get 2020 vision?

A lot of posts online promise magic potions and pills and exercises to improve vision. My own eyesight (near) has deteriorated precipitously the last few months. I've read so many books at night - on my phone and with reading glasses.

That's not the kind of vision I'm talking about. I'm thinking of how short-sighted we are when we live day to day without plan or purpose.

While it's good to trust God each day and NOT worry about the future, even Jesus looked ahead to his mission and to his death and resurrection. He wasn't taken by surprise. Jesus lived with purpose and trusted God to shape the details. 

Sometimes we shape the details and forget the bigger purpose.

Here are 6 ways to enjoy a purposeful year so you can look back with satisfaction in another 12 months?

• Set your heart in order. A wise proverbs says, "Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." Proverbs 4:23 What do you need, and what do you need to leave behind to do that?
• Set one or two goals for the whole year - what would you like to look back on ... or what would you be disappointed not to accomplish? What would give you the biggest gain? (For me, it's a return to fitness, which will ward off weariness, bring health for creative thinking, etc.)
• Set a routine of rest and keep it. We're designed for premier function with a day off each week. Have coffee with friends. Play. Sleep. Read. Or do art. What refreshes your soul?
• Set a relationship goal - do you need better connections at home, in the office, or in the community? Pick one area to work on.
• Set aside time for review - make an appointment with yourself once a week, once a month, or once a quarter. Look at 1) what you've accomplished, 2) what's in process, and 3) what's still out of reach. Celebrate or recalibrate accordingly.
• Set aside time for reflection - whether 5 minutes or 1 hour, make quiet time for yourself and God every day. You won't always have an epiphany. But slowly, you'll be drawn into the Presence and understand what God is doing in and around you.

Need something developed by a working executive admin who keeps track of many streams of projects? Here's the Big Picture Planner to help make it happen: click on the link. (It's on sale now).

Have a Happy and blessed New Year!

Read more:

*You, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried. Psalm 66:10

*Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary. Isaiah 40:30-31

*I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord, the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, because of all that the Lord has done for us. Isaiah 63:7

*We know that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. Romans 5:3-5

*God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7

Moravian Prayer: When we are open to your spirit, O God, we find reservoirs of strength and power to love and to serve. Help us to not rely on our own devices, but to wait and trust in you. 

Dear Jesus, as we start another year, please guide us in ways we have yet to follow you. Even when tested, be the light on our paths and in our hearts to always remind us that you are near. Amen.