4 WAYS TO "LIVE" THIS YEAR

I've been recently thinking on a word to drive my focus this year. One to serve as motivation for the goals I've set out to reach. Well, as a quintessential over-thinker as I am, I've yet to settle on a word. But today, this one strangely resonated with me:

L     I     V     E     .

Admittedly, it didn't seem to be quite sufficient at first. Too simple. Then it started to make sense the more I thought of the implication to live. The Lord has been leading my heart in some pretty neat ways and I thought I'd share a bit of that. I've come up with my ABCD model...Action Beyond Complaining and Discouragement. Cheesy? I know. But it works and I'm sticking to it! 

If you've never considered having a word of the year I encourage you to do so. Or feel free to use mine. I'm in a sharing mood! Here are 4 ways to "live" this year:

Take Action. Or perhaps different courses of action. How many times do we sit back and accept things as they are, consequently depriving ourselves of ever knowing or experiencing if life could possibly hold more for us? It's easy to fall into a rut. A cycle of the mundane. Are you happy living your life just as you did a year ago? No changes? Nothing new? Is that repetitiveness what you're looking forward to 5 years down the road or do you envision things differently? Consider that such things as faith or repentance could be your necessary course of action. Pray about this. The actions you take now, the habits you form, will have some sort of effect. Don't let complacency be the thing that defines your life. "The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied" (Proverbs 13:4). 

Go Beyond. Don't limit your abilities. Explore your joys a little further. Develop strengths. Work a little harder at something you're good at and take it to the next level. Realize that there is absolutely no one else in the world that possesses the unique conglomeration of gifts and talents that you were entrusted with. Realize that your abilities were God-given to accomplish a purpose. Don't deprive the world of them by self-inflicted limitations or limitations on what God can and wants to do. Just remember that His glory is our ultimate goal and to be our primary focus. 1 Peter 4:10-11 puts that into perspective for me.

Nix the Complaining. I'm guilty of this - whether it's outward or in the recesses of my heart. It festers and grows into other things that we want to avoid. I totally get it more than you know...I get that life just doesn't seem to work out the way we want it to. Yes, things happen. You can't change the past. Your response to it though - THAT you can change now, for the better. Take on the attitude that you know will cultivate the best possible outcome. Develop a heart of thankfulness. Remind yourself of God's goodness in the past if you have to. Whatever it takes. It's the quickest way to change your perspective. Read Psalm 77. Out loud. To yourself.

Unfriend Discouragement and Despair. We entertain this unhealthy relationship too long and too often at times. Sometimes it creeps up and sometimes it's a quick punch in the gut leaving us debilitated for any period of time. Yes, life is full of discouragement. It WILL happen. Stuff hits the fan and that fan can rotate at any speed distributing the aura of its contents. Yuck. I know. 

Life was never promised to be hunky dory (whatever that is)! Jesus assured us that "Here on earth you WILL have many trials and sorrows. But TAKE HEART, because I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). So I cling to the victory this promises me and I cling to the promise of life more abundant...I have to remind myself that God is good and He wants good things for me in spite of this fallen world! "I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance" (John 10:10). Yes! That's what I want. Go out and "LIVE!"

WATCHING THE WIND?

"One who watches the wind will not sow, and the one who looks at the clouds will not reap." (Ecclesiastes 11:4)

Here is what I know from experience: Everyone wants to sow and reap something. But there is a tendency or action stated in this verse that would prevent one from reaching a particular goal. Human nature in and of itself is to plant, establish, create, or prepare something in order to produce a desired outcome. To sow something. 

There's the wind though. It drives things away, tosses it to and fro. In my own perceivable wisdom, I wait to make sure there's no wind at the time of my sowing because all efforts would be seemingly wasted. My hard work? Poof...gone. 

But in his wisdom, Solomon says that if we are sitting around watching the wind...paying attention to it, we'll never sow. Frankly, It's debilitating to look at circumstances and use them as a gauge for our acts of faith. Circumstances should never determine our sowing. We must have the faith that what we're putting in the ground will ultimately produce something good.

How about the one who looks at the clouds? How is she prevented from reaping? Clouds determine rain. Rain that waters and causes growth. When there's growth, there's a harvest. A reaping. 

But what's the point of looking at what we can't control anyway? Isn't that a time waster? Can looking at the clouds cause things to come about or make them happen faster? No. But, we know that we've sown in faith. Trust that when the time is just right, you'll reap a harvest.

The following verse goes on to say, "Just as you don't know the path of the wind, or how bones develop in the womb of a pregnant woman, so you don't know THE WORK OF GOD WHO MAKES EVERYTHING." (Eccl. 11:5)

So I freak out because I look at that wind and think I automatically know what's going to happen with the seeds I've sown...Nothing. Disaster. Despair. That's my prediction. Oh those seeds; were they even worth sowing? 

However, if I'm to apply Biblical wisdom, it would be to STOP WATCHING THE WIND! Look away. Let go of what I can't control anyway because it is God who makes things happen. It's all in His hands. Best hands ever if I might add!

Friend, you have absolutely no idea what He's working out. But whatever it is, it is for your good, because you know that you love Him and you are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). Sweet relief!