The Tensions of Planning for a New Year

Happy New Year! I always have mixed feelings about a new year. It’s like a new journal… so much potential. Which also feels like a lot of pressure. Hence the mixed feelings. Anne of Green Gables liked to say that “Tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it… Yet.” That’s sort of how I feel about a new year. 

I think planning and dreaming about a new year is really important. I mean, technically, there is nothing magical about it. It’s just the turn of another day in a string of new weeks in another 12-month saga. But, I believe there is value in rhythms and seasons. I think it’s important for the health of my soul to have this regular pause. The turn to a new year is as good a time as any to examine your life and set new intentions.

For me, this turn to the new year happens to fall after a time of thinking a lot about my mission and purpose. It comes on the heels of a year of where I’m starting to really come alive in some areas that have been waning for some time. So, I have a lot of hopes and desires for continuing that trajectory in the new year. 

2018 was also transitional year for me as we navigated family trauma while Rick was shepherding a rapidly growing church. Most of the time, I felt like I was treading water – sometimes barely keeping my head above water, other times finding a rhythm that kept me afloat. But, in either case, it was still treading water!! Which, by the way, is not a good long-term plan. 

So, as I peer over the edge of a new year along with you, I want to encourage you with a few thoughts that will be important to keep in tension. At least they are for me. 

• First, don’t believe the lie that you’ll be worthier if you can just get better at this or that in 2019. If you are “in Christ,” there is nothing you can do to make God love you more or less in 2019. He created you, loved you first, and adopted you into His family. You’re one of His kids – He beams when He looks on you. You’re clothed in Christ and seated with Him in the heavenlies.  If you lose the weight or spend more time reading your Bible or get more organized, He won’t love you more than He did in 2018. If you’re going to get after it in 2019, do it from a place of security, in the knowledge that you are already completely loved by the One who matters most. 

• Second, while it is true that you don’t need to earn His love, He IS committed to your sanctification and growth. He is not afraid to challenge you to live your best life – in fact, He has already prepared good works for you and wants you to walk in them. When you live with purpose and vision and use your time well, it honors Him and is also most fulfilling for you. So, yeah, go after some things in 2019. Take time to reflect on the past and look ahead into the future and ask God to lead you into 2019 with some goals and aspirations. 

• Third, realize that any time you attempt something worthwhile, it’s going to be a mixture of failures and victories. When placed into the capable hands of your God, both the failures and the victories have value. Transformation and progress will be your rewards – not perfection. Don’t quit because you didn’t nail it perfectly the first two weeks of the year. As you look back on 2018 and, in turn, set your intentions for a new year, evaluate both the wins and the losses. Learn from both and let them shape the new year. 

I have a fresh bullet journal with lots of blank pages for 2019. As I reflect and dream and plan, I’m trying to hold these things in tension so that it doesn’t seem so scary to write something down.

Plus, washi tape – it covers a multitude of sins 😉

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Evidently, the new year often induces panic in me. I just read last year’s “planning post” and had to laugh at myself a little: https://shannonsmckee.com/2017/12/30/resolutions-and-printables-and-words-oh-my/