So here we are. One day away from the beginning of a new year. 2012. I love what a new year represents. It represents a chance to try again. To begin anew. To get a fresh start. For some it will simply mean flipping the calendar page. No expectations. No hope. No lessons learned from 2011 that they will take with them into the new year. I don’t know about you but I always go into deep reflection mode two times a year…on my birthday and at the end of the year. I do this because as Socrates plainly stated “an unexamined life is not worth living”. I find it amazing and to be honest troubling that so many people just “go with the flow” and never stop to 1) pray to God about their life 2) plan the natural parts of their life so God can step in and do whatever “supernatural” things He has to and 3) reflect! If you don’t plan, it is very likely that you will end up in a place where you never wanted to be. (But that’s another post!).
I’m pretty much an open book, to the surprise (and dismay) of many LOL. But if you know me personally for any length of time you have also gathered that even though I am a “pastor” I don’t let myself be ruled by other people’s opinions of what a “pastor” should be or look like or “share”. Lord have mercy I’ve been delivered and I won’t let anyone put me in that bondage ever again. So with that said, let me share some lessons I learned in 2011 (either from watching other’s or experiencing them myself):
1. No one is going to give you an award for most time doing “kingdom work” if you neglect your family. Seriously, this is as old school as old school can be. Your kids should know you and your wife/husband should not see the “ministry” as the mistress. Book your date nights & family days IN PEN! Period. And one more thing…don’t let ANYONE make you feel guilty about it. Will they be the ones walking with you when your marriage is on the rocks or when your children rebel?
2. If you want to be a leader, put in the time to be the best one you can be. Stop the dog gone excuses. We are never finished working ourselves and you can always be better. Trust me, you (nor I) are perfect thus reflecting on our leadership style and most of all working on how we encourage others to rise up to their potential is of the utmost importance. Do you embrace others and look for ways to use their gifting or do you limit them and put a lid on them? Are you a ministry hog? Yes you can probably do it better but how will other leaders ever learn to be who God called them to be. Or have you even given thought that actually they are better than you in an area and they should be the one given the opportunity, even if you give UP your role. Barnabas was such a man, he was a lifter of people not a limiter and he knew Paul was a better teacher and he opened up doors for Paul by his recommendation to speak and eventually Paul was “sought out” more than Barnabas. Wow, wouldn’t that be nice to see in the Kingdom.
3. Say what you mean. Mean what you say. There really is no room for masks in the kingdom. There is also no time to be wasted with poor communicators. Whether its at work or in church, it’s exhausting trying to figure people out. So just say what you mean (with respect please). And if you say you are going to do something. Do it. Don’t say yes when you really want to say no.
4. Friends don’t always live at your level of reality. As much as we love some of the people around us, not everyone can be real about their own life situations and dramas and not everyone is willing to face the demons of their past or throw away the record of wrongs so that their lives can move on. We can’t make the choices for them nor can we live their life. So love them anyway even when you know they live a life of denial and are part of a big play.
5. Find your overall purpose in life and say yes to the things that fit under that. I’m one of those people who love doing more than one thing but my overall purpose is equipping and educating. I try to say yes to only the things that fit under that umbrella. That’s why when invited to do other things I politely say no thank you. In this season of my life, with two growing boys (one with special needs) I can’t say yes to everything but I can say yes that are local and make me come alive. Equipping and educating people does that for me.
6. Things change whether we like it or not. People leave your life (at your doing or their’s) and people come into it (some we like and some not so much) but like the famous quote I read once said, one thing we can count on in this world is change. Stop fighting it. It’s going to happen. Usually when we don’t want it to. But if you really think about it, change is what pushed us to do more, be better, embrace the different, etc. In 2012, make peace with change because as Tony Robbins said ” By changing nothing, nothing changes.”
7. A year from now you will wish you had started today.Usually during this time of year, we wish we had done something. Perhaps the thing on one of your “lists” - the bucket, dream, resolution list. Doesn’t matter what list, what matters is that you get started doing it because this time next year, you will wish you had.
8. It doesn’t matter where you are, you are nowhere compared to where you can go.This year may not have turned out the way you (or I) wanted but on this we can count on, God has more for us if we dare take the step forward. Don’t stay stuck in the “whaf if’s” of 2011. Go instead and attempt great things for God in 2012. That’s exactly what I intend to do.
9. Be a friend throughout the year not just during the holidays.
10. Be you all day, everyday. It takes too much to be someone else. And if God wired you the way He did, as the manufacturer He had a purpose for you. So why should we go and change that which He said was ready to be born into this world? When you try to be someone else, it shows. Worse yet, when you try to be someone else with each person you meet, eventually that is discovered too. So be YOU. Do YOU.
I have so many more lessons but truthfully this is a public venue and some of ya’ll can’t handle my truth. Happy 2012 folks and Happy New You! Make the best of the life God has given you, surround yourself with people who love you and challenge you to be better and make sure God is in the middle of it all. There is no doubt that 2012 will be an amazing year!
