Here we are again……..Planning for a New Year

Christmas is past; presents slowly making their way from underneath the picturesque tree, into already crowded closets and cupboards.  The tree is still beautiful with its sparkly lights at night but by day has lost its sparkles and has started to lean heavily to one side (courtesy of kitty’s head first attempts to become one with the tree).

But today is the day we find ourselves on the cusp of a New Year.  Like a clean sheet of paper – a brand new journal – newly sharpened pencils – a new pack of crayons.

Fresh, blank, endless possibilities. No mess, no mistakes, no commitments broken – like the sun shining diamonds on an expanse of freshly fallen snow.

New.

What is it about new that we like?  We like the look of it, the smell of it, the possibility that it suggests.  Why then does new lose its shine so quickly?  Tossed to the far recesses of the paper pile or the back of the cupboard?

Expectations……

Ah, expectations.  What do you expect that “new” to do?  Miracles? Change your life? Make all things easier, quicker and less expensive?

Expectations…..

What if we had fewer expectations and lived in the moment that we were given?  What if we had no expectation and looked forward to each moment, with anticipation, for what it had for us?  What if…..

What if this could be the year of:

“Arms and hands open wide, twirling barefoot in the grass, head back, abandoned laughter, don’t care who is looking, kind of living?

What if……..

Full of possibilities, just like that blank paper and newly sharpened pencils.

I love lists – any kind of list.  Best Christmas present ever was a WHOLE package of blank list paper – one for each month.  Oh the possibilities!

This is the time of year when we begin to make resolutions and lists of things we will do or won’t do in the new year.  We start strong, get up early each morning, read our Bibles, exercise, eat more salad, drink more water, find more time for our friends and family…..and then…..slowly…….it tapers off.  We sleep late, rush through the day with no time for anything, the only exercise we get is as we run from one commitment to the next, and we eat whatever we can grab on the way out the door.

The blank paper is scribbled on and crumbled, stained with the frustrations and tears of daily life.  It no longer looks beautiful and sparkly and full of possibility.  Rather it looks like our lives – messy and lived in.

Expectations…..

Life is not an Etch a Sketch – you don’t get “do overs” and you can’t just shake it all up and start with a clean slate when it starts to fill up and look unkempt. Life is not a blank sheet of paper.

True living happens in the midst of the scribbles, the doodles, the unfinished lists, the checked off items, the stains of life and the crumpled paper that tells us we want to start over.

Where are you today?  At the very edge of the old year and the new year…..how have you prepared?  Are you ready?  Are you really ready?

Really ready means ready to do something different.

Albert Einstein said that the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.

I believe most of us are living that insanity.  Expecting a fresh, new start, but existing in the same bubble wrapped way of thinking.

So……where do we go from here?

I started this morning with my Bible.  I prayed as I read the Word and asked the Lord for some Bible verses for the year – to occupy my mind, motivate my spirit and guide my steps.  Words to turn to when the blank paper starts to look like a well worn life full of real living.

For me the key words are: return, rest, confidence, strength, I have, I will, accomplish, prosper.

The Lord’s Word is truth and I will seek to return to it continuously and rest confidently in what the Lord has spoken for my life.  For it will be accomplished.

I am tired of the insanity and the bubble wrapped life.

I’m ready to allow the blank piece of paper that is the beginning of 2014 to turn into a mess of scribbles and doodles, stained with life, crumpled and lived in and covered in joy and grace – and I plan to dance in the midst of it with my arms and hands open wide, twirling barefoot, head back, with abandoned laughter, not caring who is looking!