How to say NO! to the life draining and heavy ...
You can’t go back and change the beginning but you can start where you are and change the ending.
Like the one above, it wasn’t said by C.S. Lewis, although both are often falsely attributed to him. And it sounds a wonderful idea and is often used especially at the start of a new year.
This isn’t just the start of a new year; it’s the start of a new decade as well. The Roaring Twenties are upon us again. My thoughts stray to flapper girls, Scott Fitgerald, the Charleston, jazz – and Prohibition, huge social change, the rise of mass consumerism and the freedom afforded by the new car.
We don’t yet know what the new Twenties will bring us. Nor how it will end.
We do know how it starts, though, and in particular,
I know where I am starting – and how I would like it to end.
ending the year on the beach in South Carolina! December 2019
What if I take stock of where/who I am now? And then think about where I want, hope, long to be - tomorrow, next week, next year, even the next decade.
What if I ask God to show me who I am now, and who HE wants me to be?
God, I invite your searching gaze into my heart.
Examine me through and through;
find out everything that may be hidden within me.
Put me to the test and sift through all my anxious cares.
See if there is any path of pain I’m walking on,
and lead me back to your glorious, everlasting ways—
the path that brings me back to you.
(Ps 139:23-24, TPT)
I long to be on the path that leads me to God’s ways and back to Him.
I long for every day to be a day that draws me nearer to Him.
I hold out my new diary for the new year, with things already in it – commitments, people, good things and not-so-good things – and as I physically lift it up and hold it out to God, I ask for this new year, new decade:
Lord, direct me throughout my journey
so I can experience your plans for my life.
Reveal the life-paths that are pleasing to you.
Escort me along the way; take me by the hand and teach me….
Ps 25:4-7 TPT)
And as I invite Him into my new year, I ask for wisdom and guidance, for good use of my time. I reassess what’s already there, and make sure I put in the important things – rest and refreshment, exercise, family and friends.
Saying YES to the good and life-enriching things and a definite NO! to what feels draining and heavy and not in line with what God wants for me.
Focusing on who he has made me to be and less on what I am doing.
How can I know more of God in my life? How can I become more like Jesus? What will help me? What will hinder and get in the way?
And how do I say NO! to what’s asked of me?
I rehearse how to do that, so that I’m ready and prepared:
Thank you so much for asking me! I can’t do it now, but I do hope you find the right person for it….
I’d love to be able to say yes, but the reality is I can’t give it the time it deserves so I’ll have to say no, but thank you for thinking of me …
That sounds wonderful! Much as I’d love to be involved, it’s not possible for me but I do hope it goes really well for you ….
No, thank you ….. (why is it so hard sometimes just to say NO! and leave it at that?)
And this: signing up later this month. Will you join me?
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I know that some moments of the New ahead of me will be wonderful; some won’t.
I also know He will be with me in and through it all.
Your plans are still to prosper
You have not forgotten us
You're with us in the fire and the flood
You're faithful forever
Perfect in love
You are sovereign over us
- Michael W. Smith
Happy new year, new decade to you!
Every moment on your journey with God may you know yourself blessed.
