Today’s Big Idea: If this was December of 2023 looking back over 2023 what would you want to see in your life?
This time of year many of us are reflecting on 2022 and envisioning 2023. Here are some questions, from my friend Parker Houston’s terrific blog and podcast, to get you thinking:
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- What is the most important lesson life is trying to teach you right now?
- What do you want more of in 2023?
- What are the most important areas of your life to focus on in 2023? (health, family, finances, work?)
- Who do you want to be in the coming year?
- If 2023 was a successful year for you, what will have happened by next December?
- What will be your greatest challenge to achieving your goals next year?
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From where you are right now, look to the north, south, east, and west for all the land which you can see I will give to you. Genesis 13:14-15 (BLT)
This big promise requires envisioning. Seeing. Personal vision that fuels movement. It’s about dreaming – as the American poet Carl Sandburg wrote, “Nothing happens unless first a dream.”
Consider this truth: “No instinct can be put in you by the Holy Ghost but He purposes to fulfill. Let your faith then rise and soar away and claim all the land you can discover.” –S.A. Keen
When we were kids, we dreamed
When we grew older, we stopped dreaming.
Why?
Most of us started asking “How?” the moment our imagination caught fire. “How?” kills dreams.
Oh, we do have to ask, “How?”, but only when we’re moving from dream to goal. A dream is a goal without a date. Give a dream a date and it moves from being a dream to being a goal.
Begin now to dream
Imagine. Without a vision, we stall, drift, or stay stuck in the past. We live forward with dreams of possibility.
Begin to dream again! As C.S. Lewis said, “you are never too old to set another goal or to dream another dream.”
God is saying to you and me, – “Talk with Me about your dreams. Let us pursue them together.”
Reflect
What is it that needs doing, that I know something about, that probably won’t happen unless I take responsibility for it? –Buckminster Fuller
Pray
Help me see what I cannot see… Hear what I cannot hear. Give me a vision, an inspiration, a peek into my unique part in Your grand mission to seek and restore all that was lost. I want to make a big ask fueled by big faith. And the courage and resources to claim it all for You.