This New Year
We’re entering the new year and the anticipation throughout this last week has been so real. So many people around me are making resolutions or anti-resolutions. I’ve come up with a lot of goals and things I would love to accomplish throughout this next year but I am also burdened by the knowledge I will probably accomplish 2% of what I set out to do. I can’t decide if knowing this going into the new year is healthy or not.
I think sometimes we take on a survival mode and the goals, hobbies, and friendships tend to get lost. While during other seasons, there is time for growth, development, and new and improved habits. I have definitely seen both survival and growth happen in 2018, so I am excited to see what this next year holds.
One of my favorite and most real people, Taylor Trippitt spoke some truth with a post she made about the new year. Go check her out friends, you won’t be disappointed. Her words pointed me to some wisdom from good ol Solomon.
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.”
When I read these words it filled me with peace about the goals I’ve made and peace that sometimes life takes a new turn and those goals are no longer relevant. There isn’t a manual to life that tells me that every January I need to attempt to start running every day and there isn’t a chapter on how to not quit Whole30 on week 2. But I believe we aren’t meant to be stagnant. There is nothing good about standing still. Life is too short to let it pass us by. Making goals and striving for something (even with the knowledge we may come up short) is still moving in a positive direction. As long as I’m taking steps in the right direction, I’m okay with taking my time.
There’s a time to make goals and there’s a time for grace when we let them go. There’s a time to pour into yourself and there’s a time to pour into others. There’s a time to fight for people and friendships and there’s a time to softly give them up to God. I’m learning that the 20s stage in life is all about these times. Life moves so fast yet seems to be moving so slowly at the same time. So, let’s hold on to grace because that’s the one thing that doesn’t change. Grace from Jesus for us, and grace from ourselves for ourselves.
As you make your own New Year’s resolutions and goals I hope you hold grace at the middle of them all.