Hope...and A Brand New Year

So it's a brand new year...almost. Just a few more hours until 2011. Will it be full of hope...love...joy...all that you dream of? Most likely there will be good times and challenging times--that's life. But maybe, just maybe, it's time to "wake up" to some things in our lives.

In the quiet of a winter day, think about what you really want in this next year, your big dreams and your little ones. They all matter. Then BELIEVE that things could be different. We do our part; God does His part and amazing things can happen.

Your dreams of the future may seem to be asleep now, but they can arise. And like you stir and rustle and finally get outta bed...your hopes and dreams can get up and get going too.

It's a new year, and it's time for some things in your life to wake up. I'm hoping they will in mine.

Arise
Snowfall on tall pines,
Sunrise and stirring
Of quiet and big dreams
As a new year awakens.

Dark-covered winter with
Dormant believing
Leads joyfully into
Spring’s hope-filled returning

When flowers and faith
Resurrect from earth’s slumber
Alive and reminded
Of God’s faithful goodness.

What Path Will You Choose?

So the new year is only a few days away. You may still be reeling from your Christmas sugar hangover. You may be back at work. Either way it's coming: 2011. What will you do with it?

Do you want things to be different? Do you long for significant changes in your life? I do. On one hand I am supremely happy for my friends and their blessings. One close friend just heard news that her adoption is coming through. After years of longing, fulfillment. Another friend in a warm state has a fantastic boyfriend who loves and cares for her in ways that are startlingly kind. I am amazed. She is almost engaged.

To be sure, I am not bemoaning my own life. I am thankful to have published two books, with a third on the way. They have boyfriends or babies, I "birth" books.

I guess all this end of year stuff has me thinking. I am grateful for what I have, but what do I want to change in my life? How can I actually get there?

If I have been following a certain path, how can I get on the one that leads to lifetime love? Maybe that's what all this mulling is about. We have career goals and weight goals and all sorts of goals. What about love goals? Weird, perhaps. But maybe necessary if the trajectory of life is to ever change.

I want to "live a life of love." You know, be kind to others, help people, give them grace when they mess up, really listen, and truly care. But I also want to receive love...give and receive...like a good volley in tennis--back and forth so both players are satisfied.

Hmmmm. My prayer for this new year, 2011 and beyond is that you would walk forward on the path that makes your heart soar. Take a step, take the hand of the One who loves you most, Jesus Christ. Ask Him to lead you into all He has for you in this life...and not to miss it.

I plan to.

I don't want to miss love...of all kinds.

A New Year and It's Full of Possibilities!

Our choices matter...

It's a brand new year, a blank slate, a path yet unwalked. I love the freshness of a new year...full of possibility. Where will this year take you? No one knows for certain, but as we trust God and make right choices the path unfolds. Walk by faith...and walk on!

A Time to Awaken

Arise

Snowfall on tall pines,
Sunrise and stirring
Of quiet and big dreams
As a new year awakens.

Dark-covered winter with
Dormant believing
Leads joyfully into
Spring’s hope-filled returning

When flowers and faith
Resurrect from earth’s slumber
Alive and reminded
Of God’s faithful goodness.

-- Jackie Johnson

Changing Your Life – One Thing at a Time

From now on I will tell you of new things,
of hidden things unknown to you. (Isaiah 48:6)


My friend Anne in Chicago told me recently that she’d had an epiphany. A few years ago, this kind friend quit her job to take care of her ailing parents. Her mom “got promoted” to heaven and her dad is now in a nursing home. Her job for the last couple of years has been to clean the house her parents lived in and get repairs done. Just before Christmas she was just standing in the kitchen when, in a moment of clarity, she knew exactly what she needed to do—sell the house. It was over 40 years old, the repairs were coming faster than hurricane winds on the Texas coast, and it was time for a change. Instantly, freedom and peace came over her.

An epiphany.

Have you had one? Today’s a good day to talk about that because January 6th is the celebration of the Epiphany—the revelation of Christ to the world as fully God and fully man. Hard to comprehend, but totally true. Another definition for “epiphany” according to Dictionary.com is “a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight…”

It’s a sudden, “aha” moment of knowing. Clarity. Perception. Discernment. A light bulb goes on and there is hope, joy, and vision for your future.

What area of your life needs insight and change? It’s a brand new year, so let’s ask God to reveal His good purposes to us in clear ways. Let’s make changes that will change our lives and the lives of those around us. What do you want to change in 2009?

Think of one thing. Just one thing…

Ask God to reveal to you an area of your life that can be different, better, healed, more whole than you ever imagined. Here are a few ideas to get started:

• I want to (finally) get in shape so I have the strength and energy for a better life.

• I want to start saving money (or increase what I save already).

• I want to put God first and be a person of wisdom, worth and wonderfulness.

• I want to remember those who don’t have—people who are hungry, people who need a warm blanket, people who need love and help.

• I want to go someplace tropical for a vacation.

• I want to be nicer to that woman at work who drives me crazy.

• I want to connect more with my family since we don’t see each other very often.

• I want to make time for close friendships.

• I want to pray more and change the world—and my own life.

Here’s to a new year of "suddenlies" and epiphanies-—and an amazing life.