Ready to take flight?

Goodness! We're already well into 2008.

Did it sneak up on you? Did it pass without fanfare?

Not for me. January first hit like a slap in the face. Was it really possible an entire year passed without me accomplishing my major goals?

Not only was it possible, it was absolutely true. I was planning to rework Skookum, but never did. I was planning to finish a proposal that never came about. What about the articles I planned? Hmmmmmm.

So, I took a step back, went before the Lord, asked for and received His forgiveness, then I asked for new direction.

New direction?

Simple.

Finish what I started.

Simple? Did I really say that?

Sounds simple, but without God’s direction, I’ll never take flight.

A friend sent me a verse from The Message version of the Bible. It’s found in 2 Corinthians 8:10-20

So here is what I think: The best thing you can do right now is to finish what you started last year and not let those good intentions grow stale. Your heart's been in the right place all along. You've got what it takes to finish it up, go to it. Once the commitment is clean, you do what you can and not what you can't. The heart regulates the hands.

Wow!

I’m beginning to feel like I might actually get to a lift off.


But feeling is not the same as doing. So, I went back to prayer and the Lord gave me a silly dream that helped me with some tools to get going.

The dream was about two guys who were starting out on a round-the-world trip. They had invented a new machine that looked a bit like a torpedo. It could fly some and float some, so they began by being shot out of a canon-type contraption and their first goal was to try to grab a flag hanging from a crane on their way by. They grabbed the flag and stopped to celebrate.

I couldn’t believe it! They were only minutes into a round-the-world trip that would take them months or years and they stopped to celebrate.

That’s when I woke up.

Sandy, you need to make attainable goals.

With those words resounding in my mind, I knew my silly dream was from the Lord. It’s okay to have big goals, but I need smaller goals along the way--things that will give me a sense of accomplishment on my way to the Big One. And I need to take time to celebrate the fulfillment of each of those goals.

So here’s what I’m doing to dive deeper into 2008:


(1) I’m making the prayer thing a daily habit. Oh, I pray to God all the time, but I now see a need to begin each day with a prayer for direction instead of hitting the floor running.

(2) I’m making a list of things I hope to accomplish in a day. I’m not a major list maker, so mine is pretty simple. I just write the date down at the top of a sheet of paper, then I mark things off as I go. The next day, I look at what I didn’t finish and move those things to another sheet of paper OR I simply put the new date at the top along with yesterday’s date and start marking things off again. I’ve actually accomplished a few things by doing this. Hooray! And yes, I take time to celebrate and thank God for the joy of accomplishment.

With these simple changes I’m already well into my revisions on Skookum, have completed a couple of unfinished goals from last year, and am finally back up on my blog.
Ahhhhhhh, It feels soooooo good.

On January first I looked at 2007 as a year of unfinished projects, but now I see 2008 as a year of new beginnings.

How do you see it? Perhaps you, too, need to make a few changes in your approach, or maybe you had a good year and you simply need to keep doing what you’ve been doing. Either way, I’m praying for a good year for all of us . . . a year when we will enjoy the process God has given us no matter what happens along the way.