We start the year setting resolutions hoping this time we will meet them. But with the blur of life, perhaps life's circumstances impacted our ability to carry them out?
The new year began with a bang for many. COVID struck again, the DOW took a plunge, and winter storms blasted many states.
Little by little our big lofty goals for the new year start to fray at the edges. We know instinctively that without a plan we will not reach our goals, but why is it that our resolutions falter shortly after we set them?
Life happens. In the unexpected twists and turns of our own respective journeys, our plans can take a beating.
Unexpected Debt
Unexpected debt puts us in financial situations we did not anticipate. Ideally, we should plan ahead for unexpected financial situations like cars that break down, accidents, etc. But sometimes planning ahead is not enough. What then?
Resolutions do not have to be our taskmasters. They do not have to be carried out just as we hoped they would be. Making progress is just as important as the end goal.
Unexpected Crisis
Unexpected Crisis throws us off focus. We take our eye off the ball. We can't but help take our eye off the ball when the other shoe drops. What then?
Adapt your plans to your new normal. Our plans for the year are not completed in a vacuum. They are carried out in the midst of our messy lives. Through the pain and struggle of this life, when we see goals achieved, these sweet moments of victory are all the sweeter because we did not stop. Our path might have looked different, and we might have adjusted our plans to fit life as we know it now, but we pressed on.
Unexpected Grace
The unexpected curve balls in this life also lead us to unexpected grace. A place of peace in the storm. A place of realizing that our goals are laid down before God's perfect plan, Who takes everything and uses it together for our good and His glory.
Willpower is not the hero of our resolutions. God is. He enables us to achieve what He wills us to.
"The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps" (Proverbs 16:9, ESV).
The pressure is off us to perform. Our goals were never about us in the first place, but about being faithful to pursue God's will for our lives.
The dissolution of our resolutions is not such a bad thing, after all. Sometimes when we come to the end of our plans we look up and seek God's direction, leading us to a better place than we imagined.
Yours for Wise Stewardship,
Jeff Rogers