A New Year and new expectations

Indonesian moth: ah, the adventures ahead!

How do you approach each new year? Some possibilities:

• Ignore it. "It's an artificial marker, created by other people."
• Celebrate it. "It's a new beginning. I'm glad I get another year."
• Reflect on it. "What was good last year? What could be improved in the new year?"
• Resent it. "Nothing has changed. I don't like where I am and what I do."
• Resolve for it. "This year will be different! I want to accomplish my goals."

However you approach the coming year, I hope you're hopeful, filled to the brim with God's joy and lovingkindness. Here are some ideas to help us make the most of it:

The past and the future: granddaughter
K plays with my childhood "Johnny-doll"

1. Have realistic expectations. If we didn't live a perfect year last time around, we probably will have some challenges this year, too. Life happens. Good and bad. Interesting and boring. Full of highs and lows. Thrilling and depressing.
       I'm glad nothing takes God by surprise, even when we feel blind-sided.
2. Focus on important things. Let's align our dreams with lasting values. Relationships with God and others - expressed in time, energy, work, and play - will shape everything else.
       A great tip is to choose a word that expresses the focus of the coming year. Mine is "gratitude," as we set the past aside for new adventures ahead. What's yours?
3. Set achievable goals. It's great to aim high, but we're living within our personalities, relationships, and environments. How can we become more fully human, the best person we can be where we are (or where we should be)?
4. Be willing to work steadily, in small increments. Very few things get done in one-time big wins. What can we do today, tomorrow, this week, or this month?
5. Invest ourselves. Let's use our talents, skills, and resources for things that matter. Remember that income is an exchange for life-hours at work. Let's spend our money (i.e. our life) deliberately, not carelessly this year.
6. Evaluate our progress. Let's set aside regular quiet times to ask, "Are we becoming more loving? More friendly? More giving? More reliable?"
       Goals should be measurable: how will we know that we are moving in the right direction? That we have reached our target?
7. Expect the unexpected. Let's rely on God for daily routines as well as un/pleasant surprises. Who knows what is coming our way?
       Leaning on the God-of-the-impossible, we we will have everything we need to do what He's set out for us in the coming year.
8. Be happy. Let's remember to be grateful for blessings. When challenges come, let's thank God for good years and great experiences of the past. Things could be worse. There's always something to be thankful for - let's find those and focus on those this year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR. Blessings and peace to you from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Read more:

*As one from whom others hide their faces, he was despised, and we held him of no account. Isaiah 53:3 ESV

*He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8 NEV

*For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6 NASB

Moravian Prayer: Father God, your light is brighter than the sun. It is so powerful that wherever we are, our path is lit and our fear of the dark is no more. Continue to light our way throughout our lives. Glory be to you. Amen.

Enough. Whatever that means.

At the turn of the year, I examine what's in my heart and my house. My home reflects who I am because we do most of our living here. We have people over. We sleep and eat here. And I move the furniture and chotchees around here.

Are you drowning in obligations? Cluttered by too much stuff? Stuck in place because you have too much life and too little time? I'm using three resources to examine my "ENOUGH" this year.

Here they are, offering those ready to consider what "ENOUGH" means three tools to act on that evaluation, materially and spiritually. Enjoy!

• Enough: Finding More by Living with Less by Will Davis Jr. A pastor takes a look at what it means to have "enough" and "not too much." Very engaging and a fun read. It will make you look around your home and office with fresh eyes. I hope it will also help you to engage the world in a new way.
• The January Cure by Apartment Therapy. A daily decluttering challenge that's fun to do.
• Glittering Vices by Rebecca DeYoung. A look at the grooves habits have worn in our souls and how to retrain the heart for the life God designed us for. Cool. Startling. Confrontational - in a nice and inviting way.

Hope your New Year kicked off with great gusto and anticipation, as though "God with us" invites abundant life.

Share your personal resources or goals in the comments below.

Read more:

*When the LORD brought back his exiles to Jerusalem, it was like a dream! . . . Restore our fortunes, LORD, as streams renew the desert. Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest." Psalm 126 1, 4–6 [The farmers wept, parceling out seeds from what their family ate, not knowing if there would be drought that killed the seeds or rain to make it grow. They were literally "taking the food from their children" to plant next year's harvest. Ever feel that way when you invest in the future?]

*The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Proverbs 1:7

*Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV

*Peter began to speak: “God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” Acts 10:34-35

Moravian Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for creating us and loving us equally. Teach us to love one another in the same manner. In your name we pray. Amen.


* 

Anticipating God or following him?

Last gasp of beauty: hostas

The Old Testament is full of God's promises.

As I've been reading, I'm struck by two choices people make, believing God's provisions in the present and the future:
1) Bible characters get impatient and try to make the promises come true. Then they blame others for their mistakes:

• Adam and Eve try to gain wisdom by eating the apple. They blame each other and the serpent. They get thrown out of paradise and have to forage for food. They know more, but at what cost!
• Sarai tries to perpetuate Abram's lineage by having Abraham impregnate her maid, Hagar. Sarah blames Abraham for Hagar's pride and mockery and forces Ishmael and his mother into the wilderness. Arab tribes come from Ishmael's 12 sons: the boys and their descendents have been at war with everyone from the very start, yet they became "princes" because Abraham loved Ishmael prayed a blessing over him and his tribe.
• King Saul sacrifices because he gets restless, waiting for Samuel to appear. He claims that he has done what God asked and blames the soldiers for keeping the spoils. Saul loses his trusted mentor Samuel: he never sees him again. God abandons Saul and gives his kingdom to another family.

The patience of God's creation: tall and strong

2) Bible characters work and wait for God to make the promises come true. When they make mistakes, they confess their shortcoming and ask God's forgiveness.

• Noah builds the ark for over a century; finally God gives him the go-ahead and he and his family are spared the floodwaters. If he'd gone in and shut the door before God told him to, the food would have been eaten, most animals wouldn't have been rescued, and Noah would have been confined for nothing. Instead, he and his family become the foundation of human families.
•  Abraham hears God say that he and Sarah would have a son when he's nearly 100; he gives it another go and Isaac is conceived. He lives for 75 more years, long enough to see Isaac marry and begin his own family. (Oh yeah: after Sarah's death, Abraham has 6 more sons by his Keturah and perhaps a few more concubines. Not such a great idea to start the Midianites and create other enemies for Isaac's line. Sigh.)
• David refuses to usurp the kingdom from Saul even when Samuel has told him he's the next king. Even when "God-given opportunities" put Saul into harm's way. Even when everyone's advising him not to waste time. After Saul's death, David waits 7 more years for Saul's family to relinquish control before ruling all the tribes. God says David is a man after his own heart, and that his family's rule will never end.

Our driveway in fall: the leaves
are beautiful even in death

Sometimes it seems like God is waiting for us to seize the moment. To make things happen. To move ahead and MAKE God's promises come true. Yet in doing so, we ruin the opportunities where God intends to do the miraculous, beyond our own abilities or imagination.

Noah is saved. Abraham becomes a great nation. The Messiah comes from "the root of Jesse:" David.

Our driveway in autumn, glorious color
before the grey wait for spring's new growth

What does your future hold? Did God whisper a dream into your heart? You can anticipate it, force it to life, and perhaps spoil its fulfillment. Or you can trust God to make the vision come true in his own time, with his perfect timing, wisdom, and power.

It's your choice. What are you waiting for?

Read more:
*Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. Genesis 15:6

*It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Lamentations 3:26

*Stand firm, and you will win life. Luke 21:19 (NIV)

Moravian Prayer: God, we are still and silent and know that you are God. Strong in your assurance, we loudly rejoice your unyielding presence. Be our firm and guiding light. Amen.