(Written right before the new year, but it got stuck in the pipes somewhere.)
New year.
What’s your new year looking like so far? For me, it’s looking busy. The holidays always bring more traffic through the motel and campground where I work, and since I’m in the southern hemisphere we have summer right now, too—which means extra busy!
So when you’re thinking of new year, what do you imagine? I always think of a time when I review the last year, see what I accomplished—and what I didn’t, see where I need to improve, and where things are going fairly well. I also think of making new plans—deciding what I want to aim for in the next few months, and what I need to do to complete them.
I also wonder if it’s worth all the effort of making high-reaching goals, ones that I know I might not have the time for in the end. Because, like it or not, I’m still going to be the same Esther when the clock hits five-past-midnight on New Year’s morning. I’m still going to struggle with the same faults I do now.
But then I think—if I don’t have a goal; if I don’t have anything to aim for, then I’m going to hopelessly drift. So I’m making plans. I’m challenging myself to do my work faster, better, and make more progress.
A few of my goals include:
- Hosting some giveaways here. I love giveaways!
- Being more proactive about keeping things on time
- Signing up for another affiliate program or two (so you have more choices to chose from!)
- Reading through the Bible in a year with my friend (we’re doing a chronological study; I think this’ll be fun!)
- Being more consistent with my bedtime routine
- Reading and reviewing lots of books!
I don’t think that’s everything that’s going to end up on my list, and most have definite goal numbers and due-by dates attached to them.
So how about you? What plans for the new year are you making?
I am not very good at even making new year plans, and if I did, I would probably just be botherd by how I had not done them 😀
I understand! I like to have some direction to aim for, anyway, and that’s why I make some plans. (Also, I love planning, which makes it more enjoyable.)
Dear Esther,
I enjoyed your posting about the new year, and I thought that it would be nice to invest some time and reflect on the same thing.
For me, this new year is about a new epoch where ‘old things have passed away and behold, everything is new!” I intend to spend much more time ‘drawing aside and resting a while’, and ‘seeking the LORD whilst He may be found.’
I’ve always been a planner and a doer. When I was thirteen years of age, I recall planning out the next twenty-five years of my life. I was not a Christian at this time and these plans included leaving home, taking my hobby of growing carnivorous plants and making it into a boutique business, and purchasing houses and renovating them. They also included a career path; I wanted to work for Social Welfare (as it was then) and have a career which revolved around helping people and encouraging self-sufficiency as opposed to welfare dependency. Then, I wanted to assist people who were starting new businesses. I wanted to meet my family in England, whom I had left at the tender age of five when we emigrated to New Zealand. I really did have it all mapped out…. my twenty-five year plan, my fifteen year plan, which I broke down into my five year plan, two year plan, one year plan…..even down to weekly plans.
What is interesting, is that without a shadow of a doubt, each one of these goals has been achieved. As far as the nursery was concerned, there was a deadline on that. I wanted to have a cacophony of different plants; a cathedral of me’lange, an ecology of curiosities and scarcity. This had to be done by the time that I turned thirty-six, in order to keep a promise that I had made to myself when I was thirteen. It was all finished just days before my 36th birthday.
Whether we are talking about the nursery, my home, my career or my faith, it seems that 2015 marked the end of an era. Everything was complete. And I was tired. It was a good feeling though, to have completed a lifetime’s work, and to still be young and ready to live some more!
And so, with the advent of 2016, I find myself in essentially the same position that I was in when I was thirteen. I find myself able to relate to another saying in the Scripture, that when God ceased from his labour, he was able to say of his creation, “It is good.” I feel the same; not as though I have created anything, but I have taken what was there and expressed it’s potential in a way that I find rewarding and I am able to share it all as evidence of the wonders of God’s creation, extensive and diverse as it is.
When I was thirteen, there was a new world out there, that I purposed to experience and see. I left home at the age of fifteen, and moved to a city several hundred miles away from home. Everything was new. Everybody was new. My ideas were unwritten, my ideals unknown, my life unexpressed. In many ways, that is me afresh NOW. I feel like I’m ready for a whole new chapter of life, for new people, for a new journey. And I cannot wait to get started! But this time, I do not propose to plan anything. I’ve done that, and it worked well. But this time, I want only to be what He wants me to be, every moment of every day. Yielded completely, to Jesus, my King, every step of the pilgrim way. Just to be clay, in the Potter’s hand; ready to do what His Word commands. Only to be, what He wants me to be, every moment of every day!
That is my New Year’s resolution. That when I see Him, I may be like Him. I am hoping to find others who will walk with me on this journey. 2016 looks set to be a great year.
God bless you,
Ross