What you do now begins to determine what a year from now becomes. What do you want it to look like, who do you want to be? What do you plan – plan, not just hope – will you have accomplished? What will next year look and feel like?
Granted, you can’t see tomorrow from today, but what are you willing to do to make your tomorrow all that you need and want it to be? It can never be only lip service. You don’t really accomplish much if you don’t put ‘sweat equity’ into (fill in the blank). How can you possibly get to your goal without having objectives to accomplish and direct you along the way? In fact, how do you even know you are heading in the right direction? The old adage that if you fail to plan then you plan to fail (Benjamin Franklin) is not just a saying, it’s a fact.
There are times when I am greatly concerned that we’ve grown into a nation of fatalists – feeling (or thinking) we have no control… over anything! Perhaps we have bought into the ‘go with the flow’ philosophy as our default. Not certain if this is because we feel inadequate or disenfranchised to direct our own lives? Regardless, we can’t afford to adopt this attitude. If we give up, especially on ourselves, we let chaos reign. Never forget:
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” (Attributed to Edmund Burke)
And the ‘evil’ in this situation is defined as giving up on everything – especially ourselves. Alternative? To act proactively and not reactively, to consciously and intentionally become who we are:
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
(Romans 8:28, NKJV)“Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” (Romans 8:37, NKJV)
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
(Philippians 4:13, NKJV)
Even if you only remember and recite these 3 verses (over and over and over until they become a mindset) you will be strengthened in the inner man which is your source for who you are and a how you relate. As we are strengthen with the knowledge that the foundation for this mindset is:
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.”
(John 15:4, NKJV)
Then we can look back a year from now and rejoice at who we’ve become and how we interact with those populating our world. We can become the Lord’s Ambassador and touch our world with love and truth. This is worth our time and effort. Remember, I said it isn’t a cake walk but also remember Who walks with us – abiding is our strength.
