Fun fact: We are currently past the halfway mark of Jan 2015. Yikes. Seems like just yesterday we were making New Year's resolutions and plans for Christmas.
This New Year, I celebrated much like others. Away from home with a bunch of friends celebrating what has been and leaning in with expectancy to what is yet to come.
....Fast forward a few weeks and human nature kicks in. All those big dreams and audacious goals we set ourselves seem to have gotten wrapped up in schedules, back-to-work to do lists and trying to catch up with every person you can name before summer ends.
I was on the train this afternoon, on the way home, when I started reading an article talking about the way our generation now operates. We each desire the next piece of technology or car that travels faster, quicker and more efficiently to make us more productive than ever before. In itself, this isn't bad – but at what cost?
We often forget to slow down enough to even be grateful for what just happened.
I can probably name half a dozen amazing moments since the end of last year already. Yet, rarely do I give myself enough time to think, meditate and live in the moment to take it in.
In Psalm 118 verse 24 (ESV), David writes "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."
Today, is only with us for a mere 24 hours – be it raining, exhaustingly hot, filled with moments that you get frustrated or just tedious – it is a new day. Despite whatever comes, it is the only one we have and it ultimately will come down to how we face it, what it could turn into.
Catherine Pulsifer once said, "Life presents many choices, the choices we make determine our future."
One simple but profoundly practical blog I read before the New Year was about a Grateful jar. No bells or whistle here.
It is a mason jar (or whatever you'd like to use) that is clear (only for the purposes of being able to see it grow) that after the day has ended (or begins, depending on which works better for you) that we write one thing that we are grateful for that day – it could be as simple as someone opening a door for you or a free coffee day or as big as God being able to provide finances for a college course or house deposit. Whatever it is, it's a track record of what we get to experience each day – another choice, another chance.
In Colossians 3 verse 17 (ESV), it says "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the father through him."
I am personally taking a moment today, to write my first grateful moment into my mason jar. It may be a way of me being able to track my progress on my resolutions but mostly it's about allowing me time to slow down, reset and allow God to speak, because I want be listening – and not blink to another year's end if I am not careful.
