Renewal

With the quiet passing of Christmas Day and the New Year now quickly approaching, I find myself with a sense of urgency to start the process of wading through the “stuff” in my life.

To cleanse and purge.

To renew and refresh.

I don’t do “New Year’s Resolutions” – at least not in the traditional sense. Every day brings each of us the opportunity to start over, grab hold of a fresh start and try again at what we perhaps didn’t quite accomplish the day before.

Because of that, my “resolutions” tend to come on a day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month basis, which turns into a year that very often shows a good deal of growth and accomplishment. Of course, this growth and accomplishment rarely happens in the way I imagine it, and many times what I might have had in mind isn’t exactly how things turn out. But the evidence of change is still always there.

I look back on this past year, and think about the things I had originally thought were important to accomplish (you know…losing “x” amount of pounds; doing more of this and less of that). Many of the things I started out with were “me” focused.

Somewhere along the way, seeds were planted and the notion that “it isn’t all about me” began to grow inside me until I started to burst at the seams.

I began to look outside myself and my own sorrows and the things I thought were wrong and pitiful with my life. It didn’t take long to see that the only thing wrong and pitiful with my life was my attitude!

I found that the more I looked outside of myself – the less I focused on what I didn’t have – the more I focused on how I could give to others…I was able to clearly see the blessings in my life. Not just the roof over my head or the food on my table. I actually began to SEE God loving me.

Hard decisions were made.

   Comfort zones were stepped out of.

      Relationships were built...and relationships were severed.

All done in faith because of the seeds of wisdom and love that were carefully placed in my heart.

Wisdom and love that says:

“You are worthy”

“You are beautiful”

“You are unique”

“You are blessed”

“You have strength beyond your own knowing”

“You are loved for YOU, not for what you can DO”

Because of that I have been enabled to go out and plant seeds in others; usually in quiet ways, but still being done.

There is a world FULL of people in situations that may be completely different from mine, but there is still the same struggle, the same pain deep in the heart and soul, and the same desire to make it better.

To fight the struggles, to heal the pain and to make life better, the focus must shift from “things”. THINGS do not produce happiness. THINGS are blessings for which we should be grateful but they should never be exalted to “god” status. Family, friends, houses, cars, jobs, clothing, food…all necessities of life, but never intended to be obsessed over, hoarded, or obtained in excess. If you wake up one day and all of those things are gone, is life over? No. Difficult? Painful? Incomprehensible even? Yes.

So as I begin this process of going through my stuff…examining each and every thing (material or otherwise), I am eagerly expectant – and admittedly even a {little} nervous – to see how it feels to release much of the unnecessary weight I carry around with me each day.

I think it will be quite wondrous to experience even just a touch of true freedom!