Planning for the year ahead

Poatina Morning Tea Devotion given yesterday

2011 can be different to 2010

Last week I talked about the importance of the week between Christmas and New Year and taking the moment to make sense of what has been, and quoted, Socrates, “The  unexamined life is not worth living.”

I love the idea, at the end of a year, of taking stock and reflection.  Last year that job was more important.

This week, for me though, is about what’s next.

There are two books that help me think about this.

The first I was introduced to, yesterday… a Family Bible.  In the front is inscribed, Joseph Mawle, the gift of Georgiana Vernon, February, 1823…then there’s a list of names of family from then, starting with Joseph and his wife, being married at Port Arthur, followed by the names of their children as they were born. . Mema’s been keeping that list up to date.  When that Bible was printed Australia was 40 years old.  There are names I have no conception of. And in the pages are little cards with verses from 1800s, gold inlayed with a quote; a bookmark made with cross stitch with the words Annie and a Cross – made with Annie’s hair, presumably when she died.   Mema’s School Report is there from 1931…she did very well apart from Algebra!

That helps give me a bit of perspective. When you’re in the middle of life you feel you’re the centre of the universe.  Yet, at some point, in 100 years time, someone will look at my name there perhaps, and not remember who I am.  It reminds me that you get one shot at life and there are forces actively out to divert us from living it.

In Romans 12: 1,2 “The Message” says:

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

J. B. Phillips’ translation says, “don’t let the world squeeze you into its mould.”

There is a system that moulds all of us –telling us what we’ve got to do to be a good Fusion workers; or a good Church member or a good Christian.  But you were created to be you.  Other forces can push you into other shapes. This week there is the chance to say, OK, ”What do I want this year to be about?”

Yes, I need to make sense of the past but I actually I also need to make plans for the future.  I have a new quote from Bono:

Sing the melody line you hear in your own head, remember, you don’t owe anybody any explanations, you don’t owe your parents any explanations, you don’t owe your professors any explanations. You know I used to think the future was solid or fixed, something you inherited like an old building that you move into when the previous generation moves out or gets chased out. But it’s not. The future is not fixed, it’s fluid. You can build your own building, or hut or condo, whatever.

Romans saying there is a culture of the world that pushes you into a mould and fixes you.  Last week I told the story of a man who had 55 years at one job.  His son said that his father had learned new things in the first year then repeated them every year after that….he learned nothing new.

2 years ago the two goals I set,  were to lose weight and to start writing.   I got to the end the year and discovered I’d done neither.  I thought I was pretty committed,  but I didn’t get there.

So as I reflected after that, I asked myself, “ Am I still committed to these goals?”.

This year, at last,  I am able to say, “This is my book. Published on Dec 29 and now available on Amazon.com!   The fact I have a book shows me it  is possible to make changes. Discovering writing through the blog, is for me,  an important journey.

On the other hand losing weight is still something I haven’t intentionally done.  My doctor with his lovely bedside manner, said to me, you’ve 2 years or you’re going to get diabetes!

We have quoted a number of times, the definition of insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting  the results to be different .  But to do the work that brings change requires effort and that effort produces maturity.

Eph 4: 14 gives a definition of immaturity – you are washed around like a cork on an ocean…like children!

But this year is a fresh slate, the year is only 3 days old and a you have a chance to determine what 2011 is to be – it doesn’t have to be the same as 2010.  If I am willing to do the work – and it is work – it is possible to do things differently.