The presents have been opened, the leftovers are in the refrigerator,
and we are finally getting to that long winter’s nap. Well, if not a nap, then
at least we get to sit down. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I stand so
much this time of year, the bottom of my feet are actually tender.
After all the going and doing of December, the week after
Christmas is usually a time of listening for me. I have never made resolutions,
but I do often set goals, and some of them come from this time I spend with the
Lord as the year winds down. The distractions have been minimized to hopefully receive
whatever the Lord might want to say.
It's important to have dreams and aspirations. Those things
keep us facing forward, but we need to leave room for God to refine those.
I don’t want to reach for something that isn’t of the Lord,
so I often think of these verses in James, “And now I have a word for you who
brashly announce, ‘Today—at
the latest, tomorrow—we’re
off to such and such a city for the year. We’re going to start a business and
make a lot of money.’ You don’t know the first thing about tomorrow. You’re
nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing,
Instead, make it a habit to say, ‘If the master wills it and we’re still alive,
we’ll do this or that’” (James 4:14-15 Message).
Powerful words. We don’t know the first thing
about tomorrow. So, we are careful when we write down a goal to couch it in the
context of “if the Lord is willing.”
Never could I have imagined when I thought about my goals
for this past year that I would be faced with such difficult challenges. But
despite those, somehow by the grace of God I was able to accomplish at least one
of my goals which was getting a new book out. There are still other projects I
want to get to, but one of the things this year has reinforced for me is the
necessity of holding these things with a loose grip.
Someone has said, “It’s never too old to set a new goal or
dream a new dream.” So, as the new year starts, no matter our age, no matter
our position in life, let us lift up our
heads to the Lord, listening, watching, to see what He might want to do in us
and through us.
Meanwhile, as I’m listening, I also get to sit. My feet are loving it!!