The List

I am a list maker.  I have all kinds.  From things I need to buy at the grocery store, to projects I want to do in my house, to who I want to be someday.  This may explain why one of my all-time favorite holidays is New Year’s Day — A list maker’s nirvana.

To be honest, making lists and accomplishing everything on them are two different things.  In fact, looking back over years of my annual goals/resolutions, one would discover a distinct pattern: they are just a continuation of the years before.   I am a perpetual work in progress.

Exercise 3 - 5 days per week

Pay off credit cards

Cut frivolous spending

Spend more one-on-one time with my kids

I am here to say to all of you fellow list makers, that this is okay.  What I am coming to realize is that we are always evolving, always planning, always adjusting our life strategies.  The problem - if we are to call it that - is that life is a series of moving targets.  It’s fluid.  It is always changing.

There are phases that I try new things, cutting down on sugars and carbs, working out more or less, spending less and saving more.  Relationships are being challenged or enriched.  Kids move in or out, friends come and go, and jobs and responsibilities ebb and flow.  Constantly.  

We have to stay nimble.  We have keep going, keeping it between the lines and at least aiming in the right direction when it comes to achieving the targets we want to hit.

Submitting all our plans to the Lord, believing for His guidance and favor, are crucial in navigating our way through life. In big and little things, when He is in them, we succeed. 

I use lists to reorient my thinking but also as a form of prayer.  They are reminders of what I want to do and become, as well of things I need to move away from and change. These lists act as guard rails; they keep me stepping forward when my progress is unsteady.  

Lists - and prayers - never end.  There will always be something we need to be reminded of, striving toward or healing from.  We may be a few pounds outside our perfect weight.  We may have a charge card that creeps up from time to time beyond a limit we are comfortable with.  We may yearn for deeper relationships or to be freed from a hurt that still plagues us.  God is in every detail.  He gives us discipline, encouragement and strength.

Although our circumstances and relationships change, one thing is constant.  God loves us.  He forgives us when we fall short or when we sin.  He places before us new opportunities to do better with each new day.

I may never get to cross off all the things on my lists.  But I do know one thing that is for sure - with God all things are possible.

And somehow, that is enough.

In the Cave...

No matter how hard we try to avoid them, there are days that we spend in the cave.  You know the cave, too.  It’s that place that we go when sadness overtakes us, where we go to duck inside of ourselves, unwilling for just a little while to see the light of day.

It’s hard to know what sets us off, but for me, it can be as simple as a memory of a season when my life seemed “whole.”  A time before betrayal and brokenness claimed me, spinning me around and around like the “Tilt A Wheel” ride at the carnival. 

Dazed, disoriented, and more than a little queasy, that’s what thinking my best days are behind me make me feel like. 

I’m off that ride now, for sure, but it still takes a while to get my equilibrium back.   I have moments when I am not so steady.  I find myself with the sensation that everyone else is doing fine; it’s just me who is having trouble catching my stride.

The truth, of course, is that is a lie.  Everyone has their days.  Everyone has times when we escape and let our pity have a party.  Everyone has a mental list of why things are not going our way.  Everyone has a silent dialogue filled with “If only’s.”  Everyone.

Though it is normal to have these moments, I find that the best way through them, is to allow myself to be in them for just a bit but to set a timer for how long I am. Once it goes off, I vow to leave the cave.  I may, for example, allow myself to dwell here for a night, with the promise that when I awake in the morning, I will start again with a fresh outlook.

To ignore these days, I believe, is not healthy.  We can’t possibly not allow ourselves to feel our grieving, to stand in our loss, to feel our hurts and brokenness for just a little while.  This is how we process our emotions.  This is how we empty ourselves so that we can continue the process of “moving on.”

God knows that these days in the cave are hard.  He sees us when we cry in our sadness;  He knows when our our hearts ache and when they question if we will ever know joy again.

We will.

I wish that I could simply snap my fingers and rid myself - and you - of these moments.  But I can’t.  All I know is that somehow they serve a purpose to create in us a new vision, a new hope.  Even when it feels hopeless.  

The very thing that drives us into the cave, is the thing that God is transforming in our lives.  If it’s loneliness, betrayal, a breakdown of some sort physically, fiscally, emotionally… God is the torch that leads us out of the darkness.

He is the lifter or our heads.  He promises us that joy will return in the morning - even if “morning” is a long time coming. It will come.  We will arrive changed, stronger, wiser, restored and blessed.

Gather yourself in the cave and come out fortified, ready to take on the fight that you are in with new resolve that God is leading you to victory.

He is.  I promise you.

It’s the little things…

It’s so easy to become overwhelmed.  I dislike the tendency I have to  seize-up, to procrastinate, to appraise all that I must do as if it were the building of Rome and it must be done all in one day.

Having a vision is one thing; making it become a reality is another. 

The devil, they say, is in the details, and he has a way of getting us distracted and discouraged so that we do not attend to them.

Daily obedience to little things creates big results.  We think we can let things go, do them tomorrow, start that project next week… And what we get is more of the same: a growing list of what we have not accomplished. 

The enemy loves it when we feel shame and frustration.  When we feel stuck and unfulfilled, the blaming and “if only’s” come in rapid-fire to counter and assuage our ineffectiveness.  

None of this is of God.

God wants for us to have a fulfilling life.  He wants us to be blessed financially, relationally, and in the realization of dreams that He has placed within us to achieve.  When are partnered with Him, putting one foot in front of the other and doing what is in our hands to do, He does the rest. He does what only He can do. 

When we do our part, we activate the partnership He has with us to see us through the process and achieve results. 

God tells us not to despise the day of small beginnings. Daily obedience is the key to building momentum, confidence and strength in all areas.  By being faithful in the little things, He is readying for the greater that is coming.

Attending to fundamental habits, no matter how mundane they seem, groom our intentions and instincts so that we can build on them.  It’s practicing scales on a piano so that we can one day play a symphony.  It’s walking around the block so we can one day run a 5K.  It’s writing a paragraph in our journal so we can then make it a page, then a chapter, then a book.  

What one thing if you did it each day in your work would build and bring you to a new level of success?  How about your health?  Your housekeeping?  Your savings?  Your attitude?  Your faith?

Such a principal can be applied to everything we do.  Simple daily applications of focus build momentum, synergy, strength, a foundation of habits that collectively create results.

Overwhelm is disempowering.  It impedes our progress, distracting us from the potential of each day to make a tiny impact toward big accomplishments.

God wants for us to achieve the things He has placed in our hearts to do.  He walks along side us, encouraging us to walk in faith, not by sight. Just one step, and then another. 

If He’s given us the vision, He’s given us what we need to accomplish it. It’s up to us.  

Are you waiting on Him?  Or is He waiting on you? 

Take a step today.  Envision a plan, an idea, a purpose that if you accomplished just one tiny daily effort towards it would build so that in time you would achieve your goal.

Do not despise your small beginning.  Honor it.  Do it.  Know that He is in the little things with you.

Great things await!

The Broken Road

Memories shouldn’t hurt us.  They should warm us, causing us to see our blessings, to be grateful.  A photograph stuck in a book or drawer can make us smile at the how little ones have grown, at the progress of life, or the accomplishments we have made.

For those of us who have experienced heartache, however, such mementos can have a very different effect.  They can be painful.  Reminiscing can cause us a sense of sadness.

Sometimes, things just don’t turn out the way they are supposed to.

Seeing reminders of someone who was in our life grieves us when that person choses a different path while leaving us behind.  Through separation, or even death,  when someone we love leaves, there is mourning regardless of how much time has passed.

The journey of our lives is often traveled on broken roads.  

For me, coming to terms with these imperfect places on my path, is knowing that God is with me. He doesn’t cause the pot holes, the hurt, the breakdowns along the way.  He’s never pleased when others come and deliberately impede our momentum, causing us harm or discouragement.  He carries us through it. 

At times, I can get stuck on the side of the road, longing to make a u-turn.  I yearn to have again what used to be rather than what God has ahead for me. 

God is always in what is coming, not in what is behind. 

He wants to bring us to new blessings, to show us new things, to give us new relationships and experiences that will grow us, enrich us, cause us to be in awe of all that He has for us.

It’s not easy.  Sometimes, we get into ruts in our thinking.  We listen to the voice of the enemy that wants to convince us that our best times, our best life, is the one we used to know. 

This is simply not the case.

God has more for us than we can possibly imagine.  He promises that the plans He has are to prosper us, to protect us.  He wants us to be fueled by faith that He knows what He is doing.  He wants nothing more than to fulfill our deepest longings, to mend our broken hearts.  He wants for us to stop looking in the rearview mirror, but ahead.

Our heavenly Father makes a way for us when there seems to be no way.  Watch carefully for signs where He is at work in your life.  Be grateful for what was and expectant for what is to come.

Our destination is good.  There is joy there; there is faithfulness; there is unconditional love.  There is healing and restoration.

Be not afraid of the broken road.  It has taught us many things.  It will always lead us to a better place when we let God do the driving.

The best truly is ahead, not behind.  

Keep your eyes on Him.