A NEW YEAR - A NEW YOU!

A new year means change. With 2011 safely nestled in the archives of years past and January coming quickly to an end, I find myself in a twilight zone of adjustment—stuck between letting go of the old and embracing the new. When change comes, I can fear it, find hope in it, or be inspired by it knowing I will emerge stronger from the challenge. So, I make a conscious choice to be inspired as I pause here long enough to catch my breath and evaluate what stays behind and what goes forward.

I would define 2011 as a challenging and burdensome year for me. Although I feel my life has been one perpetual test with challenge constantly nipping at my heels, 2011 was different—more defining. My past struggles were about just finding a relationship with Jesus Christ. Once I began that relationship with him through prayer and Bible reading, God gently nudged me to let him take the wheel—and that’s where my challenges lie today—letting him have control.

In my head I understand that God’s will is best. But, it’s my heart that just refuses to let him drive. Paul puts it this way, “For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.” (Romans 7:15, NASV). People wake up every day saying they’re going to change their lives and never do. We get caught up in the same old patterns and life takes us for the same old ride. Today I’ve decided to the leave the same old ride behind. It’s time to entertain new opportunities and rekindle the romance with unfulfilled dreams.

This might seem like a good time to set some resolutions. But, I’ve never been one to embrace the notion of checking off a list of unrealistic expectations I have set for myself. The truth is those things might change my circumstances and I might accomplish a few things I planned, but it’s not enough. In order to achieve my highest human potential and fulfill God’s plan for my life, I must transform—like the ugly caterpillar morphs into a beautiful butterfly.

Our culture, time, and place try to feed us the lie that we can change ourselves, but these attempts at self-change only get in the way of true transformation. The caterpillar morphs into a butterfly by wrapping itself in a cocoon designed to bring about the metamorphosis. I transform when I wrap myself in the cocoon of Jesus Christ so I can take on His characteristics. This seems like a scary place to be. Yet, if I let it scare me, then I remain stuck. In order to embrace the hard road of transformation, I have to believe what Beth Moore calls the pillars of believing God:

1. I believe God is who he says he is.

2. I believe God can do what he says he can do.

3. I believe I am who God says I am.

4. I believe I can do all things through Christ’s strength.

5. I believe God’s word is alive and active within me.

These tenets are my foundation today. But, I get sidetracked sometimes. It’s time to bring the focus back to understanding God’s dream for me. I know he created me which means he know me better than I know myself. Therefore, that means His plan is always better than mine whether I believe it or not. The irony of it all is that when I am scared that God’s plan just won’t work for me, I remember that if I let him have the wheel, my dreams start to become His dreams.

What I will take forward with me is the desire to become the woman God designed me to be—allowing him once again to transform me. “She is clothed in strength and dignity and she laughs without fear of the future.” (Proverbs 31:25, NLT). That’s the kind of woman I want to be.

THE BIG Os



 Milestone birthdays seem to usher in a season of obsessive contemplation for me. In 1994, a year before I turned 30, I began feeling suffocated in the mundane of the American Dream. I expected the payoff to be happiness. I reasoned that being married with two healthy children, living in a brand new home without debt, and realizing the goal of becoming financially stable so I could stay home with the kids should be enough. After all, that was the goal I had set for myself. But, I felt empty. The persistent tug to find peace started a year-long search to answer the multitude of questions 29 years had raised.

At that time I was working as the secretary at my church and the minister was a book hound. I remember sharing my feelings of emptiness with him. He responded by encouraging me to open my Bible daily and handing me the book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey. I left that day with a peaked curiosity and a thirst for satisfaction.

Over the next year, I devoured 56 books on a quest to satiate my hunger for answers. As I read everything from Christian self-help to leadership to biographies coupled with daily devotions and journaling, the veil lifted and clarity replaced the confusion—I drifted aimlessly through life because I had little understanding of who I am. For 30 years, I allowed other people to set the direction of my life and define me. I was a ship drifting at sea without a compass, a map, or an anchor. It was time for this ship to find its way to shore.

This was the year I wrote my first personal mission and purpose statements. I wish I could share them with you, but the notebook etched with the personal definitions has since been lost. Even though I misplaced the written statements, I remember well how understanding my purpose and defining my core values helped shape the next few years toward a positive direction. I was on my way.

Sadly, though, life can get in the way of living a defined purpose. Steven Covey refers to it as the tyranny of the urgent. There came a point where I stopped putting first things first and buried my mission and purpose under the rubbish of selfishness. I ended up divorced and decided to run from a God who I thought failed me.

Ten years later, I found myself at another milestone birthday left with an indelible negative mark from spinning my wheels in the rut of doing the same thing over again expecting different results. I ignored it for a couple of years and ended up divorced…again.

Face down in the gutter of reality, I tackled the issue with God and vowed to find my compass, map, and anchor once again. I spent several months alone with God, my Bible, and a notebook. I wrote my current mission and purpose statements and found renewed passion along with the peace and joy that comes from knowing the truth.

I share my mission and purpose with you to encourage you to ignite your own passions.

MISSION: My mission is to find joy, fulfillment, and value in living out my God-given purpose. I will be a beacon of light, a bridge of understanding, and a castle of positive influence in my relationships and my community. I will live from a center of honesty and integrity and balance in my own life by setting appropriate boundaries and priorities based on my core values of faith, family, friends, finances, fitness, and fun.

PURPOSE: My God-given purpose is to use my total life experiences to come alongside, comfort, encourage, and exhort the people God places in my life to become well-rounded individuals who understand and realize their full potential. I endeavor to create opportunities for growth in those individuals by listening, offering compassion, explaining grace and forgiveness, and offering wisdom obtained through my own successes and failures.

My life choices and personal goals reflect that personal growth and maintaining good, healthy relationships are important to me. I try to make right choices based on honesty, integrity, and self-awareness. I build in intentional growth and learning opportunities to help me reach my highest human potential.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Hebrews 12:1

I may stumble and fall, but I will keep getting up and finish the race to obtain my ultimate prize. I encourage you to do the same.