Hey Beautiful!
Happy New Year!!
I hope the start of 2015 out of 2014 has been a gorgeous transition for you – that you’ve celebrated all you’ve accomplished and taken stock of where you are now and where you hope to be in another year.
If you haven’t done that yet, I challenge you to do it now. I’ve met many young women who express that they wish certain things were different in their life, but when I ask what goals they’ve set to make changes and get there, they sometimes look at me like I’ve suggested something totally foreign!
The truth is, goals can be a lot tricker than they seem, and even the thought of setting them can make us feel discouraged! We may quickly recall times in the past when we’ve hoped or tried for something and failed, and those memories can make us feel like we are doomed to disappoint ourselves again – so why even bother to begin?
Another popular block to setting goals that can subtly sabotage us is the feeling that having our own objectives or setting even a rough timeline might get in the way of the will of God.
We might think that if we take steps toward meeting someone this year in the hopes of entering a serious relationship, we might meet or even marry the ‘wrong’ person! Or what if God doesn’t want us to lose weight for another few years so we can learn some important life lesson?
It’s almost amusing how our little subconscious fears can so discredit God. Amazingly enough, He is still in control, and He can and always will still manage to orchestrate things to end up His way, regardless of the baby steps we might take in sensible directions.
Indeed, many of you may have – like me – had plenty of experiences of shoving yourself in a direction you felt was right, only to have nothing move forward because it just wasn’t where God wanted you to go!
If He can so easily reroute us when we are trying our absolute hardest, it seems pretty silly to worry that by taking a few small steps in a holy direction, we might be completely usurping His Providence and throwing things off track.
Now of course this doesn’t mean that we don’t have free will. But if we have consecrated ourselves to God, and we are living in accordance with the commands (and ‘suggestions!’) in the Bible, doing our best, being open to constructive criticism, and repenting when we realize we’re headed in a not-so-good direction, God really will make our paths straight, even if, with the best of intentions, we start to walk down the wrong one!
This is one of the many reasons why it is awesome to have mentors and a great community around us, who can love us well, and lovingly tell us when we might a little lost!
So, with this awareness of two things that might subconsciously dissuade us from creating goals or resolutions for the New Year, what are we to do?
We need to learn how to move past disappointments and solidify our identity as something outside of former failures, we need to align all of our goals with God’s Word and submit them to His purposes, and we need to recognize our responsibility for taking initiative and action.
Let’s move through these one by one.
I go into a lot more detail about getting over a sense of failure or impossibility and starting to dream again about all that could be in the Body Stewardship Course, but for now, here are some quick tips.
Realize first that failure is strength. (?!) I know, it seems counter intuitive, but it’s true! When we realize all that we’re not capable of, we are forced to turn to God, and He has a lot more strength and capacity to make things happen than we do!
Realize second that every day truly is a new day. The glory of salvation is that we have been ‘born again’ – given a totally new start and a fresh slate. Now logistically, it might not look like much if anything has changed. We’re still in the same body, in the same house, in the same family.
But what has changed, if we’ll let it, is our sense of what is possible. We can let ourselves work around these constants with a fresh hope, and most importantly, with the sense of peace that comes from being totally right with God.
How about part two?
Ensuring that each of our goals is aligned with the Bible is critical for success for two reasons:
1) what God doesn’t like, He tends to block.
2) What God doesn’t like and doesn’t block, generally does not give the person pushing for their own will that incredible transcendent sense of being of one mind with and in good standing with God.
I can tell you right now, there is no form of success on this planet that matches or can even come close to replacing the incredible spirit soul body mind peace and fearlessness that comes from being right with God.
So, whether our unholy aims were to be blocked by God or not, they’re quite fruitless (literally – apart from the vine we can bear no fruit, remember?) It reminds me of NFL superstar Troy Aikman’s question after winning two Superbowls – “Is This All There Is?”
When we’re examining whether our goals align with God’s Word, we have to look for two things: the action itself being holy, and our motives being holy. What is it that we want to achieve? A cleaner home? A fitter body? A particular relationship? And why?
The why is key not only because it helps us watch out for unhealthy motives, but because those very off balance motives can reveal a deeper cry of our souls.
If we long for a fitter body with an urgency and pain that borders on panic and despair, what is really going on there? Those of you who have heard me teach on this before know that I feel it is often a mix of both body insecurities that need to be taken out by a deeper experience of God’s love, and a cry for better physical self care.
Pausing and honing in on what our bodies and souls are really craving and asking for is an excellent way to get to the root of problems that seem smaller (‘I just need to lose weight asap!’) but year after year, aren’t going away.
Once we’re aware of what our goals – and our underlying reasons for desiring them – are, we can move on to working to accomplish them!
Next week we’ll cover part three – recognizing our responsibility for taking initiative and action – in a video shot in the cool downtown warehouse district of Toronto, Canada. If you’re looking to create some changes in any area of your life, make sure you don’t miss it! 🙂
Till then,
Love and Freedom,
Jackie
