New Year's Resolution - Part II

I left the last post feeling like I hadn't quite written everything I wanted to say about resolutions so here's Part II.

I came up with a list of value-based goals and saw how each of those goals helped me look forward and get excited about the new year and want to strive towards becoming a better person -- growing, stretching, learning, etc. I love it! Still it was missing something. And then a sermon at Mars Hill last weekend helped me pinpoint it -- each goal on the list needs to re-examined under a Gospel-focused lens. I believe this means that for each goal that I put on my list, I should ask myself : how does this goal help further God's kingdom? Does this goal produce eternal rewards or have eternal consequences? Is this goal going to help build my relationship with Christ and with other people?

Maybe this was one of those "ah-ha" moments -- when an idea suddenly just clicks in my head and everything is suddenly so clear. Even if i can come up with a list of goals that really reasonate with me, and help me attain some sense of meaning and purpose in my life, those goals might still not be worth investing my time in this year. I found that when I passed each goal through the Gospel-focused lens, I had to put a few of my goals on a lower priority list. If i hadn't gone through this last step, i would have had a list of goals that included items as crazy as, for example, I want to knit up one sweater per month this year (in other words, 12 sweaters in 2010).... but ... why???? The goal would have helped me accomplish something that feels worthwhile on a personal level ( just think of all that lovely yarn, knit up into soft warm garments and then all the skills learned in order to achieve a beautifully hand-knit sweater....) but then how does this fit into the gospel plan that God calls out for my life? i really had trouble justifying this as a high priority goal for 2010. So i kicked it down a couple notches. :)

A friend of mine recently wrote to me saying that she wanted to be intentional in her life this year -- I really liked her choice of words because I feel this explains very well what it is that I wanted to do with my goals : I wanted to refine them such that each of them, working together as a group, helps me not only to live a purposeful and meaningful life this year but one that also intentionally seeks after God in my life -- how He can grow me, change me, teach me, and shape me into the woman He created me to be.

And that's all i feel I have to say about that.

Special news update to come. Soon. :)