Hope-filled Vision for 2016
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Rom. 15:13)
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Daring to dream takes unreasonable hope.
Those with the most hope win. Hope is what fuels vision, dreams, courage. Hope is the only thing strong enough to keep us pressing on in the face of opposition, discouragement, or drudgery. Hope is the steadfast belief, the certainty that God is who He says He is, He will do what He says He will do, and that all Word-anchored commands and promises can and will be fulfilled if we remain in Him.
Hope is essential for life and hope is essential for vision.
Where there is no prophetic vision, the people perish (Prov. 29:18). Another translation says they “cast off restraint.” Both are true. Without vision, nothing can move forward — movements die, people die, good works die. And, without vision, people “cast off restraint.” That is, there is no discipline. No habits, no faithfulness, no stick-to-it-iveness.
We know this by experience, right? Without a passion and purpose, we lack the motivation to follow through on the hard work of daily habits.
Without vision, we quit.
Instead of the New Years Resolutions, how about pursuing a hope-filled Vision for 2016? This vision informs what Habits you will practice, which will inform what action Plan you pursue.
This way, instead of the uninspiring “read 10 books and lose 5 pounds and try to pray more” sort of deal, you have a real vision of how God wants you to change and grow and mature and flourish this year.
This isn’t about legalism, it’s about lordship.
How will my life become more entirely under the lordship of Jesus Christ in 2016?
After writing out a vision–a dream, really–you are ready to address the habits.
What habits need to be done in order to move in this direction?
Then, when you have a list of habits, look over your year and determine where to begin. Typically, it’s most helpful to begin with what bothers you most. It’s amazing how tackling one disorderly area (in your home or life) inspires change in every other area. This is your plan. It’s most effective to tackle one habit at once, focusing exclusively on that until it’s mastered. The New Year may be a great time to make a plan for 10-12 new habits, but it’s not a great time to begin 10-12 new habits.
It’s a great time to begin one.
Plan for 12, begin with 1.
So, I suggest taking some time to pray and ask God to show you a renewed vision for your life. Then brainstorm a bit and journal your thoughts. Here are a few questions/exercises to get us started:
VISION: What 10-12 words would you want to describe your life? If you wrote your obituary in 4-5 sentences, how would it read? What would it look like to have complete victory in a troublesome area of your life? What would freedom look like? Where have you not yet surrendered completely to His control? In a sentence, what is your mission or purpose for your life and family?
HABITS: What virtues or character qualities would be absolutely crucial in order to have a life like that? What habits do you observe being regularly practiced by those you most admire? List out 10-12 habits or virtues you most desire to see in your life. (Examples: Orderliness, Generosity, Kindness, Patience, Temperance, Punctuality, Speaking less, Gratitude, Health, Stewardship.)
PLAN: Which habit or virtue MOST stands out to you as absolutely critical for the mission? Or, which unhealthy habit has the most possibility of sabotaging success in that area? What three concrete behaviors or activities would begin cultivating this one habit or virtue in your life?
The concrete behaviors are just that — behaviors. But they are forming new grooves, new ways of thinking, new habits for becoming a more grateful person. This same rough pattern can be helpful for household habits, eating habits, parenting habits, anything. We start big (a God-given vision)and move our way down to habits (we are what we repeatedly do) and then down to the nitty-gritty: What am I am going to practice doing today? The smaller you start the better! It’s amazing how energizing a little success is!
This isn’t self-help mumbo jumbo, this is receiving a God-inspired vision for your life, the life He created you for, and asking Him for the practical wisdom to walk in the godly habits necessary for His purposes.
According to God, there is hope.
We are only allowed to be hopeless about what God is hopeless about.
Where He sees hope for change, let’s do the same.
{Happy New Year! Thank you for reading.}
Look both ways before crossing the year
I finished writing the little devotional on fear and sent it to Jeff.
“Great,” He replied. “Let’s each write up some discussion questions to go with it.” Super. I scratched out some thoughts, but before I clicked send his own set of questions popped up in my inbox. His questions were these:
1. Can you think of a time this past year when you were afraid? How did you respond and how did it turn out?
2. How can you see ways that God is delivered you from fear? What is one area where you used to be afraid and now are not?
Fair enough, right? However, my questions were these:
1. What unknown in the future is making you afraid of right now? Is there anything looming ahead that’s causing you anxiety?
2. How can you take that thing and go to God in prayer? What would it look like, practically, to trust Him with your future in this area?
See the difference? So small, yet so profound.
My man is a past-oriented person. I, a future-oriented.
He actually pointed this out to me several months ago. I narrowed my eyes and listened, skeptical. Now I see it everywhere; we’re really ridiculous creatures.
- He loves to hold onto things. He keeps old clothes, pictures, books. For him they hold memories of the past.
- I’m a ruthless purger. Haven’t worn it in a year? How about 6-weeks? Close enough. Toss it out. Kids haven’t played with it? Toss it out. Keep moving forward. Make room for new things we’ll inevitably get in the future.
- He takes pictures. Remember the past.
- I rarely take pictures. Keep moving forward!
- He never finishes the carton/bottle/box/bag/plate. Leave a little bit in there and keep it in the fridge/cupboard.
- I drink/eat whatever little bit is left just so I can toss out the container and move on!
- Jeff keeps receipts for decades.
- I throw them away as soon as I get home.
- Jeff loves studying history.
- I love studying things that motivate me toward a better tomorrow.
- The kicker? I have a dry-erase calendar on my fridge. I realized that I would erase every single day as soon as it was over, and would start over writing the next month in the blank spaces, so that at all times the calendar was all future dates. No record of what I’d done. Only un-lived days.
- He doesn’t have a dry-erase calendar because he’d never erase it. 🙂
Do you see? We really are all wired a little differently. Neither is better, but certainly very different. Thankfully, we’re learning from each other. Jeff is learning to throw away the ratty gym shorts and I’m learning to reflect, look back and bit and learn from yesterday before moving onto tomorrow.
And that’s what we need as we cross into 2016.
Some of us, perhaps, are prone to gaze intently at the future. We’re ready, excited, climbed on board and racing toward another new year. Some of us, on the other hand, want to ride backwards on the train. can we just look behind and remember all the good. Reflect. Review?
We need both. So as we cross the year, perhaps we’d be blessed by setting aside some time for looking both ways? I’m looking forward to doing this tomorrow (haha! I even write with future-oriented language!), with Jeff, as we drive to Corvallis for the day. We’ll be asking ourselves these:
- What was your greatest victory this past year?
- What surprised you about the direction of your life this past year?
- What was harder than you thought it’d be?
- What was way better than you’d ever imagined?
- In what way have you changed from January 2015 to December 2015?
- What are you hoping to see God do in you this year?
- If you could choose one thing to change about yourself or your habits this year what would it be?
- What fruit of the Spirit will you focus on this year?
- What spiritual discipline (prayer, reading Word, fasting, fellowship, service) would you like to grow in this year?
- What current relationship would you like to invest in this year?
Just a few ideas to get started. Are you more past-oriented or future oriented in your thinking? I’m curious … Enjoy looking both ways as you cross into 2016, and I pray for God-inspired and God-initiated ideas, dreams, and reflections.
{Thanks for reading.}
*Originally from 2011
Because sometimes, we just can’t remember…
I had only been gone 5 minutes when it happened. Onions were simmering for soup. Christmas music floating through the house. Dutch intense over Legos. Heidi happily coloring. I ran out to Jeff’s office to discuss church business, ran back in to stir the onions again. I didn’t see Heidi.
Stirring the onions, I saw her come from around the corner, head down. She wrapped her arms around my leg.
“Hey, babygirl. What’s up?”
Head stayed down.
“Heidi, what’s up Sweetie?”
She finally looked up. Her eyes wide, stricken. I lowered down to look in her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” She turned and pointed, then took my hand and led me into the living room. Around the corner, she pointed.
A long line of pink marker down the wall.
“Oh.” I looked down into her wide eyes, her mouth started to twist, eyes filled, stricken by the pain of guilt. Tears spilled over her eyes. Oh I know that feeling, babygirl. That feeling of Oh, What have I done?
I scooped her up, ignoring the sizzle of onions behind me, and took her, crushed, crying, to her room. We slide down into the rocker. We rock. She grieves. I’ve been there:
Godly sorrow, it’s good–got to let it do its work.
This girl’s only 3 but has a spirit opening, like a flower, and I never want to miss an opportunity, thinking she’s too young.
“Heidi, does your heart feel sad and yucky inside when you do something naughty?”
“Yes,” she sobs.
“Me too. Mommy does naughty things too sometimes, and it makes my heart feel so sad and yucky. It’s a terrible feeling, I know. You know Mama does naughty things sometimes too, right?”
She nods. (A little too readily, if you ask me.)
“Do you know what those naughty things are called?”
She’s on it: “Sin.” She says it like she knows it, hates, it, hates the feeling of doing it. How early on we are acquainted with it!
“Can I tell you something wonderful?”
She nods.
“Do you remember why Jesus died on the cross?”
She’s recited it a hundred times: “To take away our sins!” but now, in the midst of her own sin, she can’t remember.
That happens to me too.
In the midst of my sin, I forget why Jesus died on the cross. I can’t see it. Don’t know it. Just can’t remember. Can’t think straight because the frustration and darkness of my selfishness eclipses the light of His love.
“Can I tell you again?”
She nods.
“Jesus came as a baby–at Christmas–and died on the cross, because He loves you so much He wanted to take away ALL your sin–even writing on the wall–and forgive you and take away all the sadness and yuckiness from your heart and make you all new and clean on the inside. Do you remember that?”
She nods.
“Mama forgives you, babygirl. I’m proud of you for showing Mommy your sin instead of hiding it. That’s the same as confessing. And now we’re going to pray and then go clean up the wall together.”
Now she’s stricken again. “But Mommy,” she sobs, “I tried to clean it up, I can’t. I tried with my finger and I can’t. See?” She shows me, pink ink smudged on the pad of her pointer finger. She looks down, now hopeless again.
I smile. “But this time, Mommy will help you. Do you believe Mommy can do it?”
A glimmer of hope: she nods.
After praying, we walk together to the living room, hand in hand. She shows me how she tried to get it off. How the pink just smudged and got bigger, worse.
Again, I ask: “Heidi, do you believe Mommy can do it?”
She nods.
I grab the spray cleaner and a little doggy-puppet wash cloth. She’s laughing as puppy makes silly voices and gets soaked with cleaner.
“Now, Heidi watch. Do you know what Jesus does with our sin? Watch carefully.”
Her eyes are wide. I spray the wall, and in one smooth action, wipe with doggy-puppet-washcloth and all trace of pink-pen … is gone.
Her face is light.
And I’m reminded, why Jesus died on the cross.
~
{Remembering this from four years ago. As we pack up Christmas decorations and put away new toys, let’s look to the cross and remember why Christ came. Thanks for reading.}
What to give your family for Christmas
I remember that 2010 Christmas so vividly.
I had gotten up early. Everything was ready. The baby Jesus doll was hidden. Gifts were wrapped. Cinnamon rolls were formed, rising, ready to bake.
My 4-year-old son was the first to rise. He shuffled downstairs, carrying his new Lightning McQueen car he’d received for his birthday just four days prior.
I bound over, excited. “Good morning, sweetie! Do you know what today is?”
He rubs his eyes, scrunches up his face. “Can I play with my toys?”
I continue: “It’s Christmas! Isn’t that exciting?! And now you get to look for baby Jesus!”
He runs over to the couch, hides his face in a pillow. “I don’t want to look! I want to play!”
“But … after we find baby Jesus we can open your presents!” My mind races. We’re supposed to be at my parents’ house at 10am. We still have to do baby Jesus, open gifts, and deliver hot cinnamon rolls to a family down the road.
My son starts to cry. “I don’t want to open presents! I just want to play with my toys.”
This is unbelievable. I shake my head. What child doesn’t want to open presents? Why is my family always the one where nothing goes right?
I promise him there are more toys to be had, and we finally get him to the tree. He opens a box, a gift sent from a relative. It’s a package of socks. His face falls. Now I’m irate. Really? Come on people, I’m trying to get my kid excited about Christmas and you gave him socks for crying out loud!
“Mommy, I don’t want socks I just want to play with my toys!” Now he’s crying and I’m on the verge.
Eventually we make it out the door. My dear husband, wanting to cheer me up, suggests we stop at Starbucks. He runs in while I stay in the car. It takes him another fifteen minutes because the line is so long. Seriously, people, it’s Christmas! Go home and be with your families! By now we’re an hour late and it shows on my face. I know I’m being ridiculous, but I’m on the verge of tears. Why am I so irrational? It’s Christmas!
Eventually, we made it to the family’s house to deliver the cinnamon rolls. We’d been doing the Twelve Days of Christmas and it was our day to reveal ourselves. Their whole family came out on the porch, all hugs and laughter and genuine joy. I noticed they were all still in jammies. I asked about their day, what their plans are, still struck by how happy they all were.
The mom smiled and responded, “Oh we just relax, stay in our jammies all day. We play games or do something fun. You know, whatever.”
Whatever.
Aha. That’s what I was missing.
The gift of whatever.
When we give our family our expectations, everybody loses. We wrap up our ideals, our dreams of the “perfect” day, and then expect them to perform according to our plan. When they don’t, we’re frustrated. All in the name of the most wonderful time of the year.
What if, instead of giving expectations, we gave the gift of whatever. If we decided that whatever happened on a holiday, we’d be happy and thankful. That the only expectations we had were for ourselves, expecting ourselves to be kind. Expecting ourselves to be gracious.
Expecting ourselves to be willing to go with whatever.
Remember, the gift of Christmas has already been given. It’s Jesus! We don’t need anything else! So give whatever!
This gift of whatever might be just what our families need.
A fun, flexible holiday where the only thing that’s set in stone is the certainty of joy.
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{I have to laugh at myself back then–I was so ridiculous! But we all do it, don’t we? Wrap holidays up in lofty expectations? I pray this Christmas you just get lost in the wonder of how good God is, who sent His Son into the world–The Gift for us. In the midst of presents and food and fun (all wonderful things!) we would SLOW and quiet our hearts and ENJOY a day centered on Christ. Here’s to a Merry, Merry Christmas. Thanks for reading!}