It amazing how when you want everything to slow down it all just speeds up and you get overwhelmed.
What am I talking about?
i did manage to have a good Christmas in the midst of teaching and edits on the book. It all hit me the week of New Year’s. First, I found out I had a class for this Masters of Education I am doing. And class starts in less than two weeks now and I was more than a little overwhelmed by the pre-course work.
Usually during this New Year’s week, I plan. I sit down and write out goals for the year. I pick two or three to work on for the first three months. I completely enjoy this planning time but this year I was just overwhelmed.
I was also overwhelmed because I wanted to take a different course and I wanted to work on a book proposal. The course is on Christian history. I had already done the first week of readings. The book proposal was on reading aloud in the classroom. This something I care about deeply.
i sat down to write out goals and all I got was a sense of anxiety at the sheer amount of stuff I’m trying to get done before classes start in March. And I panicked.
Then I wrote this for you...
Dear Beautiful You,
Who doesn’t want to do that hard thing in the New Year?
who doesn’t want to get on the treadmill?
or go for a run?
or sort through the closets?
or tackle the garage, or the piles of paperwork,
or the project that’s hanging over you like a ton of bricks,
or do that big thing that feels like an impossible thing?
Okay, I hear you and I’ve been feeling it too.
Hard things just keep calling you because you’re meant to answer to higher & better things.
You’re meant to do hard & holy things because they are the next thing—to get to the best thing.
You’re made to do difficult things—because there’s no other way to get to the happy & holy things.
Here is a thought we all need:
Life is Pain — and you get to choose the Pain of Discipline or the Pain of Disappointment.
Nothing happens without discipline. No music gets played without discipline. No games get won. No finish lines get crossed. No freedom gets tasted. And you want that.
Someone said, “Brilliant doesn’t matter, if you can’t get out of bed.”
Talent doesn’t mean a thing, if you let Fear be some terrorist that takes you hostage.
Potential doesn’t add up to anything, if you get addicted to perfectionism because perfectionism is slow death by self.
Fire your perfectionism and your procrastination will quit too.
Because here’s the thing:
You’ve been give a gift and you need to do the hard work of unwrapping your gift, your talent, your vision, your God-given dreams.
So as we look ahead into this New Year,
we may pierce our shoes,
And the road may wear us right down
…we’re just the prodigals stumbling back into His presence,
back into the only air that is not toxic:
grace—the only air we can safely breathe this year…
and He catches us with His nail scarred hands & holds us with the only thing that can ever hold us: His arms of Grace.
We are not held by a standard of perfection--because we are held by His arms of Grace.
Keep going! Keep doing hard and holy things!
What am I talking about?
i did manage to have a good Christmas in the midst of teaching and edits on the book. It all hit me the week of New Year’s. First, I found out I had a class for this Masters of Education I am doing. And class starts in less than two weeks now and I was more than a little overwhelmed by the pre-course work.
Usually during this New Year’s week, I plan. I sit down and write out goals for the year. I pick two or three to work on for the first three months. I completely enjoy this planning time but this year I was just overwhelmed.
I was also overwhelmed because I wanted to take a different course and I wanted to work on a book proposal. The course is on Christian history. I had already done the first week of readings. The book proposal was on reading aloud in the classroom. This something I care about deeply.
i sat down to write out goals and all I got was a sense of anxiety at the sheer amount of stuff I’m trying to get done before classes start in March. And I panicked.
Then I wrote this for you...
Dear Beautiful You,
Who doesn’t want to do that hard thing in the New Year?
who doesn’t want to get on the treadmill?
or go for a run?
or sort through the closets?
or tackle the garage, or the piles of paperwork,
or the project that’s hanging over you like a ton of bricks,
or do that big thing that feels like an impossible thing?
Okay, I hear you and I’ve been feeling it too.
Hard things just keep calling you because you’re meant to answer to higher & better things.
You’re meant to do hard & holy things because they are the next thing—to get to the best thing.
You’re made to do difficult things—because there’s no other way to get to the happy & holy things.
Here is a thought we all need:
Life is Pain — and you get to choose the Pain of Discipline or the Pain of Disappointment.
Nothing happens without discipline. No music gets played without discipline. No games get won. No finish lines get crossed. No freedom gets tasted. And you want that.
Someone said, “Brilliant doesn’t matter, if you can’t get out of bed.”
Talent doesn’t mean a thing, if you let Fear be some terrorist that takes you hostage.
Potential doesn’t add up to anything, if you get addicted to perfectionism because perfectionism is slow death by self.
Fire your perfectionism and your procrastination will quit too.
Because here’s the thing:
You’ve been give a gift and you need to do the hard work of unwrapping your gift, your talent, your vision, your God-given dreams.
So as we look ahead into this New Year,
we may pierce our shoes,
And the road may wear us right down
…we’re just the prodigals stumbling back into His presence,
back into the only air that is not toxic:
grace—the only air we can safely breathe this year…
and He catches us with His nail scarred hands & holds us with the only thing that can ever hold us: His arms of Grace.
We are not held by a standard of perfection--because we are held by His arms of Grace.
Keep going! Keep doing hard and holy things!
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