more and less in the new year
Every time the calendar rolls around from December to a brand new January, just about everyone who has a calendar starts to get ready to embrace a whole new 365 days. I’m not one to make a big deal of resolutions. I am all too keenly familiar with the sense of failure that comes with a myriad of broken resolutions by the time February comes around. Don’t get me wrong. I think everyone needs to have aspirations. What would life be without dreams and goals and something to strive for?
But that’s just it. I think life is a process. It’s more of a growing into new habits and growing out of old ones than it is anything else. It’s a day-by-day experience of letting God take our broken pieces and our mess-ups, and every day help us to grow into something new.
I didn’t wake up on January 1st as a vastly different person than the one that went to bed (before midnight!) on December 31st. But that doesn’t mean that the woman who wakes up next January 1st won’t be a better version of the me that God is creating.
This year, you won’t find any “I will never agains” on my list. 2013 taught me some things about myself . Some of them I like. Some of them I don’t. It’s a list of more and less. I want more of Jesus in every day of the next 365 and less of me by the time 2015 dawns.
So here’s a few of my mores and lesses in 2014.
more
- listening.
- connecting.
- smiling.
- being brave.
less
- excuses.
- complacency.
- worry.
- fear of failure.
There’s always something magical about a new year…But as I grow older I find it is like my birthday…the magic goes away, although I still have a vague sense of excitement about the new year.
I want more joy, not just when things go the way I want them to, but because ‘All my springs of joy are in You’.
And less fear of tomorrow, next week and next month. Instead, I want to look back, see God in all the yesterdays, and trust that He’ll be in the tomorrows too!
This is the first year in many that I haven’t spent New Year’s Day or New Year’s Eve or perhaps a day or two on either side writing goals, evaluating, striving onward and upward, hoping. To be quite honest, it was the busyness of things still undone, the disappointment of goals not reached (many lost sight of), and the probability of failure that kept me from writing anything down. But I don’t want to live in fear of failure. It’s too general to be a goal, but the thing uppermost in my mind as I enter 2014 is, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection….” in all those areas where I would ordinarily state solid plans. It’s not “read through the Bible this year” it’s “Know Him better through reading His Word.” It’s not “make a specific prayer time; it’s “Did I spend time today accepting the Maker of the Universe’s invitation to spend time in His presence?” It’s not “Reach X income in my business.” it’s “God, help me thank You for each responsibility and trust You to provide.” It’s very like you said: more of Him and less of me. And the hope? I wistfully look for it to return as I remember how to worship — as my view of God comes closer to who He really is.
Excellent! That is a great list and even better idea. I might steal the “more of Jesus every day” idea! Thank you!