"Enjoy the little things in life because they become the big things."
I don't really make New Year's Resolutions (perhaps because I don't have a great track record for follow-through), but I try to take time during the transition of one year into the next to reflect.
In 2018, I rediscovered what I was like as a friend, a student, and a counselor. I rediscovered what it was like to trust, to share, and to learn. I rediscovered some blessings I had a forgotten and some pain I had ignored. As I prayed in this new year, I thought about all of these discoveries--the people and experiences that were a part of them and the God that authored them.
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A good friend recently sent me this passage from Brene Brown's book Dare to Lead:
"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket--safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.
To love is to be vulnerable."
Then I thought about Galatians 6, "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."
Am I allowing other people to bear my burdens or am I interfering with their ability to fulfill the law of Christ? I have been so selfish in my pursuit of independence and self-sufficiency while ignoring that it is God who reigns. In the misguided desire to protect myself, I cut myself off from the very people God has given to strengthen and encourage me, and I've limited the ways that God can be glorified in my life.
I'm thankful for the people in my life who remind me that God uses broken people: "Bless the thing that broke you down and cracked you open because the world needs you open." -Rebecca Campbell
In 2019, I want to connect. I want to connect with myself, with my friends, with my church, with my family, with others who cross my path, and with God in a more vulnerable, genuine, and present way. And maybe in connecting with people I will be hurt, but that's okay. My heart will be breakable, penetrable, but redeemable. After all, God doesn't exempt us from affliction and heartbreak, but He is with us in the affliction and through the heartbreak. It is through connection that I can show people the great and awesome God I serve.
2017: Redefine
2018: (Re)discover
2019: Connect
In 2018, I rediscovered what I was like as a friend, a student, and a counselor. I rediscovered what it was like to trust, to share, and to learn. I rediscovered some blessings I had a forgotten and some pain I had ignored. As I prayed in this new year, I thought about all of these discoveries--the people and experiences that were a part of them and the God that authored them.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
A good friend recently sent me this passage from Brene Brown's book Dare to Lead:
"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket--safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.
To love is to be vulnerable."
Then I thought about Galatians 6, "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."
Am I allowing other people to bear my burdens or am I interfering with their ability to fulfill the law of Christ? I have been so selfish in my pursuit of independence and self-sufficiency while ignoring that it is God who reigns. In the misguided desire to protect myself, I cut myself off from the very people God has given to strengthen and encourage me, and I've limited the ways that God can be glorified in my life.
I'm thankful for the people in my life who remind me that God uses broken people: "Bless the thing that broke you down and cracked you open because the world needs you open." -Rebecca Campbell
In 2019, I want to connect. I want to connect with myself, with my friends, with my church, with my family, with others who cross my path, and with God in a more vulnerable, genuine, and present way. And maybe in connecting with people I will be hurt, but that's okay. My heart will be breakable, penetrable, but redeemable. After all, God doesn't exempt us from affliction and heartbreak, but He is with us in the affliction and through the heartbreak. It is through connection that I can show people the great and awesome God I serve.
2017: Redefine
2018: (Re)discover
2019: Connect
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