I am going to copy Ann Voskamp. I'm naming the new year. 2011. I've never named a year before, though I have made countless New Year's declarations and resolutions. I like the idea.
I always end up looking at my resolutions like some sort of check-off list. While I like lists and they have a place in my life, a list of resolutions seems never to be able to get "checked-off". So it bugs me and ends up feeling like failure... even if I've done a relatively good job of keeping a resolution. Naming the year, now that is something I can live with peacefully. When my dear Tobitha wrote Impact, I knew then what I would be naming 2011.
Practice. The Year of Practice.
You see, I am one of those little people that like to flit from one thing to the next. I am going on to the next thing before I have even begun to master the last one. I'm not proud of this. Some people think I have a wealth of knowledge on a variety of subjects. It's not true. In reality, I know a little bit about a lot of things. In a way, I am a quintessential Jack-of-all-trades-and-master-of-none. I'm a curious soul, interested in all sorts of things. I don't stay on one road for too long.
But I wouldn't characterize myself as flaky. :)
Anyway, I feel compelled by none other than the Holy Spirit Himself, to rest in the solid and un-shifting for awhile. For me, it's a shift in from creating and pursuing to practicing. Practicing what? The stuff I already know. This year is one for me to focus on God's perfecting work.
Lest anyone think I really am flaky, and have no clue as to how to actualize this grandiose idea, I will list some practical areas of practice:
remembering my many loved ones on their birthdays and anniversaries with cards and calls
choosing recipes from one of my many cook books as opposed to finding them from the internet
studying scripture
exercising my body daily but not legalistically or obsessively
making music in the way I know how
praying
smiling
deep breathing
hugging
speaking sweetly
playing
kissing
reading
counting blessings
listening
cleaning
teaching
loving
giving
See, I know how to do these things. I don't have to research how to do any of them. I just need to practice them. There is nothing wrong with books that challenge us in a new way, like Radical for instance. But I don't need to read a book right now about how to arrange my life in a way that will prove what Jesus really means to me. I know what Jesus means to me and I have at least 19 ways to show it everyday. This is my basic training, my boot camp. Anything beyond that is like special ops training, and I'm just a foot soldier.
So I probably won't be learning a new art form this next year. To be sure, there were some creative endeavors I had in mind that are now on the back burner. No self-help or how-to or sweeping, this-is-the-new-big-idea books.
There's too much old wisdom I have yet to crack.
I can learn to be faithful in the small and ordinary.
Productivity will be birthed through practice.
Practice.
