Happy New Year!

One of the principles often spoken at my church is how we leave one season determines how we enter the next.

Last night my Pastor noted that resolutions are human attempts to refocus our lives.

So my question today is will I enter 2023 attempting to do things in my own strength, or will I enter surrendering to a greater plan?

I have had plenty of bad ideas in my life.

I have wasted plenty of opportunities.

Each one, though, taught me something. Each bad idea revealed what didn’t work. Each missed mark showed me how to aim better the next time.

And they also showed me I don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

I can’t confuse motion with progress.

Novelty is not the same as innovation.

New isn’t necessarily better.

Shiny isn’t necessarily more valuable.

And herein lies tension in pursuing personal vision.

I want to be bolder

I want to articulate grand visions and chase big dreams.

I want to make my mark, but I don’t want to go ahead of God’s plan. And I don’t want to fall behind it.

I wrestle more with self-doubt than arrogance, but I’m eminently capable of both. Therein lies the tension.

I never want to be the person who hides when I need to hustle, but I don’t know that what the world needs is more of me.

I believe it needs more of you, but I don’t know what exactly that looks like, either.

I do know that there are things we have tried to do on our own that we will do better with others.

There is transformation we have tried to white knuckle that we need to give to God

There are victories we have tried to manifest that are bigger than our capacity to accomplish.

What we can do, is our best. We can keep speaking life, keep moving forward, watching and waiting for our appointed time.

That is my hope for you.

So I want to pray a blessing over you today.

May your talk be filled with substance and possibility.

May your walk take you to strange and wonderful places that trouble your critics, delight your supporters, and surprise even you.

May you find unlocked doors in every room you’ve been stuck in too long.

May your path and your passion be unblocked this year.

May you reset the clock, and not worry about how late you are, or how much further you would have been if you had just started five, ten, or 20 years ago.

To paraphrase a poem that used to hang on my grandmother’s wall, you are the keeper of this day. Today is yours. And yesterday is gone. Remember it. Learn from it. But do not attempt to relive or relitigate it. And do not waste your time regretting it.

Remember it. Remix it. Revamp it. And run.

May you place your feet on a firm foundation, the rock of revelation knowledge,

And may you ask, seek and knock, that you might receive, find, and experience open doors, and then exercise the faith to walk through them.

I will have more to say in the days to come.

But for today, let me just say, Happy New Year.

I believe in the gifts within you.

I rejoice in the purpose over you.

I welcome the work rising from you.

And I can’t wait to see them come forth.

(Photo Credit: Engin Akyurt)