It takes only nine months to prepare a human being for life and breath.
In other words, 40 weeks from this moment some family– maybe even yours– could have a newborn son or daughter right in their midst, where they did not have one today. A brand new person could be on this earth in 280 days.
The Author of Life never stops writing new life stories.
He never stops rewriting our life stories, either. Our bodies are ever renewing. Five days from now, we will have new digestive cells. In 120 days, we will have new red blood cells.
Every day, God’s “To-Do” is to renew.
Every day, His plan is to make us new.
If you have waited to renew your commitments or to begin a self-improvement agenda, rest assured, you are already WAY behind. God doesn’t procrastinate, and He started your renewal program for 2015 months ago. (What, you didn’t notice?) Maybe the fact that God is ahead of you means you are not behind, after all. The truth is, you’re ahead. Your Shepherd goes before you to level the path for your feet.
God is way ahead of me, too. I see that now. With this fantastic truth in mind, I am not setting goals this year. Most years, I am running for office of Goal Governor. I’m pretty sure that is an official title I have tried to pursue. I really LOVE setting and meeting goals. But this year, I am not setting any. Be shocked. Then hear what solidified this decision.
My shift in thinking came to me when I was on a vacation with friends a few weeks ago.
We’d been in Manhattan for four fun days, and the car that was scheduled to take us to the airport was running late. I walked up to my friend as she hung up the phone and said, “What’s the latest? Is he on his way?”
“Yes. We’re all fine. Somebody I know said that once,” she said with a smile in her eyes.
Wait. Was I supposed to know this? “‘We’re all fine?’ Who? Who said that once?”
“You!” she laughed. “You don’t realize you’re saying it? You have said it all day long, since we’ve been here.”
I was stunned, because I hadn’t remembered saying it, at first. Then I was relieved, because if you are going to say something without realizing it, then We’re all fine is not too bad. (Trust me on that one: I said cuss word one time without realizing it … when I was fifteen and talking to my high school principal’s secretary. Of all places. Of all people.)
On the flight home from New York that night, I replayed the trip in my head, and my go-to phrase came back to me. Suddenly, I could hear myself shouting it over the rain and traffic. I could see myself muttering it to myself, as I looked at the subway map on my phone. We’re all fine. We’re all fine. We’re all fine.
I know exactly what I was thinking when I said it.
Three of the friends on our trip were seeing NYC for the first time, two friends were there for the second time, and I was visiting for the seventh time. That meant I was our navigator. I enjoy planning and navigating a trip, but I felt a great responsibility for arriving at our destinations without timely or costly mistakes. You know, in New York, you get one thing wrong, and suddenly you are off schedule; waiting forever for transit or walking blocks and blocks and blocks.
So I checked three things at every stop, whether it was a stop to eat, a stop to shop, a stop to get off a subway or cab, a stop to enter a building, or a stop at the light on the corner.
1. People? Is everyone safe? (Count six heads …)
2. Valuables? Is the stuff that matters accounted for? (Scan that we have all the shopping bags and no accidentally open purses. Feel blindly for my own phone.)
3. Direction? Are we headed the right way? (Check street sign, think of number of blocks and number of turns ahead, look at watch. On time.)
“We’re all fine.”
I repeated this three-point checklist until it became like breathing. After a while, I wasn’t even aware that I was doing it anymore.
And that is what I want to happen to my mindset for 2015’s renewal process. See, I tend to make a bureaucratic mess for myself, telling myself I must put a sticker on this daily chart, enter a daily tabulation on this phone app, keep a record in this journal or planner, holding myself accountable with every manner of documentation. (Achem … Can you tell that I used to be a public school teacher?)
Busy work is never effective. Even when you expect it from yourself.
There are three basic things that matter to me, and those three things are what will guide my decisions this year. I plan to check them effortlessly at every stop, naturally and reflexively, as if I were standing on the corner of Madison Avenue and 42nd Street, about to walk into Grand Central.
This is what will tell me if I have myself together:
1. How are my People? Am I plugged in? Involved? Listening? Being heard? Has it been too long since I went out and had fun? Am I taking good care of the ones who need it? Am I taking good care of myself? Is everyone safe?
2. How are my Values? I say I value the Bible. Am I reading it? I say I value writing. Am I doing it? I say I value integrity. Am I living it? I say I value freedom from debt and distraction. Am I choosing it? Is the stuff that matters accounted for?
3. How is my Direction? I want to follow God. I’m either doing that, or I’m not. If I am, then I will end up exactly where I need to be, regarding everything my heart needs. Matthew 6:33 is a big, fat awesome promise, and I am banking my entire life on it. Am I headed the right way?
Whether you are planning to make a list of goals this year or if you are changing your mindset, as I am, my prayer is that you will recognize that you are not alone in your desire to grow. God wants us to grow more than we want us to grow.
In fact, He has started the process without us.
The New You and the New Me are already underway.
We’re all fine.