Transformation doesn’t just happen. There is a discipline involved, but it’s not about completing a task. It’s about making room, paving the road, putting myself in a posture prone to transformation. Then, I give the Holy Spirit ripe soil to do his work. This New Year’s season, I am going to start a practice I hope to continue throughout the year. I am going to focus more on who I am being (or better yet, becoming), than what I am doing.
- I am going to say yes to people more and tasks less. This will mean more sitting on the floor with a child, more going to get coffee and more picking up the phone.
- I am going to say sorry more often. It increasingly feels like maturity to say ‘sorry.’
- I am going to work on finding a rhythm between work and rest. I love what I do, so working more than is healthy is a temptation, but this year, I am committing to understanding rhythm.
- I am going to live out one of our family values, ‘if I can’t share it, I can’t have it,’ to the extent it’s sacrificial.
- I am going to pray for caregivers more often. Their load was always designed to be shared.
- I am going to keep short accounts with those I work alongside. I refuse to give the enemy a relational foothold.
- I am going to be bolder with strangers. (Maybe this is my age? But I am compelled more and more to say truth out loud. In public places. To the dismay of my children…)
- I am going to put mute on my gadgets more often. (Enough said?)
- I am going to be offended less. Wouldn’t the world be a lovely place if we were all less offended?
- I am going to cry even more for the vulnerable child. I sometimes bite my lip and hold it in. No longer.
At the starting gate of 2016, it doesn’t look easy. We have more children to serve than ever before. We have more understanding of best practices (and thus more responsibility) than in years past. We have more staff to relate to, more dollars to steward well, more countries to impact, there will be lots of chances this year to excel still more. But, I will do it, knowing there are 190+ staff and 2000+ guests and hundreds of volunteers and thousands of donors doing the same. Together, we encourage one another to wake up and do it all over again the next day.
Stand with us here at the start of the year, make your own lists and together we’ll set an example of how God’s people come for the least of these.
1 Thes. 4:9-10 says Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more.