The Wading Pool

The New Year is in full swing now at our place.  Life is back to it’s usual a million miles-per-hour pace.  We’ve already had one case of antibiotic-needing sickness (just two days in), and yet are still awaiting the arrival of Lil’ Newt.  First full moon of the year is tomorrow, so we’ll see, won’t we?

As so many of us are want to do, I’ve moved from reflecting on the year that was to thinking about the year to come.  In addition to the usual 365, we all get one extra day this year to make up for that pesky 1/4 day that it takes to circle the sun each year.  Like many of us, I’m trying to make the most of every one of those days.

Amanda and I had a couple of chances (probably the last for the foreseeable future) to sit and chat about our hopes and goals for the year over the New Year weekend.  One of the things that we kept coming back to was probably the same thing all of us do:  the desire to not waste the time we’re given.  The word that’s been on my mind is “intentional.”  Let me explain.

For the last few years, the pace of life (and the pace of change in our lives) has often reduced us to a reactive, rather than proactive, state.  Like a punch-drunk boxer backed in a corner, I found myself simply reacting to the swings coming my way.  Peaks, valleys, sickness, health, for better, for worse, loss, pain.  Like that boxer, I blocked a few punches, and may have thought I holding your own, even landing a punch now and then, but in reality, I was getting pummeled.  True, there are always situations you have to react to, that’s just life, but when all of life is spent reacting, at the end of the day, you’re too tired to do anything.

What I’ve found is that I often have great intentions, but due to failure to plan for those intentions, they never come to pass.  Days turn into weeks, weeks to months, and before you know it, it’s Christmas.  So, as I thought about the year to come, I “resolved” (I hate that word) to be more intentional about our life.  I’ve “resolved” to make the most of what I’ve been given.

First off, it has to begin with me.  Spending time alone with the Word of God, praying, seeking God’s will for our lives.  As a husband and father, this is a non-negotiable.  I’m not an early morning person, but starting my day off by feeding on God’s Word is the only way I can start.  Yeah, I’d like to hit that snooze button a few more times (no doubt that temptation will greatly increase when Lil’ Newt gets here), so I pray each day for the strength and consistency to get up and get going in the Word.

This is the jumping off point to everything else.  If I don’t start here, I won’t start at all.  If I really want to change, to be transformed, it has to start there.  Romans 12:1-2 says it better than I ever could:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”