In a Year's Time
Today is the last day of 2011. That's a crazy thought.
Where were you twelve months ago? Isn't that an interesting thought to ponder? And I don't mean physically only, of course. Emotionally, spiritually, in your relationships, in your thoughts...where were you?
It's amazing how quickly we forget. Things that I thought at the time I'd never forget are now like a dream in the morning-as it hovers in the back of your mind, you can almost recall it, but not quite.
The past year has been full, it seems, with lots of change. I suppose that's always true, and perhaps every year it seems more true than before-again, how quickly we forget. I wonder how many times I have remarked, "That seems like a really long time ago," about something that happened this year. Things as close as September seem long ago. Hey, things as close as the beginning of this month...
Which makes written records fun and interesting. I looked over my poorly-kept journal, and I'm glad for what's recorded; for even those times I cannot fully remember. Personal writing is something worth doing, whether by journal or letters or recording prayers or even scribbles on a calendar. It increases your thankfulness as you see ways that the Lord has worked or answered prayers that you forgot you even asked.
Last year I wrote a list of goals, mostly self improvement, and most of them will be repeated if I do one this year. One goal was to have Romans, James, the Sermon on the Mount, and some Isaiah verses memorized. This isn't nearly as lofty as it sounds, as some of these (namely Matthew 5-7 and James) should have been memorized years ago. But in the Lord's providence, I started doing a women's Bible study on James, and so I had a specific goal, to be able to say James up to where we were studying, and subsequently, I think I can say it all now-though I'm a little stumbly on the last chapter or so. The others I sadly failed at.
Since the beginning of this year, over and over again I've been challenged in diverse ways, in different settings, about the importance of prayer. While there's been an improvement over twelve months ago, most of these proddings have gone without a permanent effect. So, my goal for this year is to spend more time in prayer, sacrificing other things, as we do for other relationships. Most of our friendships would suffer if we spent the same amount of time talking with them as we do with God.
And I know by experience that the amount of time by the clock you've spent in prayer isn't necessarily the time you've really spent. It's the equivalent of those relationships with someone you say hello to-perhaps you say hello three, four times a day, but still you get no deeper than a greeting. I catch myself thinking, I haven't prayed today...I should, and then shooting off some generic prayer, during which I think, I should be paying attention but what am I going to do after this?
Instead, our goal is the relationship of one whom, having missed them for a while, we set up a date to meet and have a good talk-and of course, once reached, to progress even further, for unlike a human, God is always available to all, and doesn't have to cut down on His time with you because He's meeting with Suzy down the street. Pretty awesome, isn't it?
But though the goal is to "pray without ceasing", it's hard to reach; yet, without a specific goal, I have found, our sinful flesh gets in the way, and it won't be done. So, I encourage you to set a specific goal for yourself and do something eternally significant in the next year.
Because time goes quickly past, and before you know, you will be at the end of 2012, looking into 2013, wondering where this year went; and the movies, or web surfing, or book, or whatever it is that takes your time, that you gave up will not matter, but time spent with God has eternal reward.
Where will you be in a year's time?