Chaplain’s Column
Happy Next Year!
Happy New Year! The decorations are down, and the lights are off. The fitness centers are full, and the diet industries are booming. The holiday season has ended, and a new year begins.
Over the years, experience has taught me that a new calendar does not make everything new. A new year does not make last year’s bad eating habits turn into a new healthy body. 2019 did not automatically free me from my financial habits of 2018. My dysfunctional relationships did not magically turn into a Christmas Hallmark Movie.
So, what is so exciting about a new year? I believe it is a great opportunity for a new perspective! You may not be able to change every circumstance immediately, but you can change the way you see things now! Many of us start this new year wanting things to be different, wanting something new. But I believe we often crash and burn with our new year’s resolutions not because we don’t want something new, we just often fail to prepare for the next.
A couple of weeks ago I was traveling back to 30-degree weather in North Carolina for the holidays. As I stood in the airport, with my coat zipped, dressed in my stay-warm clothes, I was getting all kinds of weird looks here in the almost 70-degree Corpus Christi weather. While I looked odd in my current attire, I was not dressed for where I was, but where I was going.
I want to encourage you to develop a “next” perspective. Until you start preparing for the next, you often miss experiencing the new. Dave Ramsey said, “If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else.” The “next” perspective is not always easy, sometimes it makes you look odd to the average person. Average is way overrated anyway. But a “next” perspective will help you to develop a moving forward attitude, and experience new ways in your life. You and I have to start thinking new if we are going to consistently do things in a new way.
“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
As you move forward with a “next” perspective mark your trail. The prophet Jeremiah wrote, “Set up road signs; put up guideposts; mark well the path by which you came.”
“Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose, is the story of Meriwether Lewis, as in Lewis and Clark. Lewis was appointed by Thomas Jefferson to find a waterway to the Pacific. He was given a $2,500 appropriation from Congress for the expedition. The largest part of the budget was $696 for Native American presents. He also used the appropriation to buy things like a boat and medicine and navigational instruments.
“But Ambrose makes a special point of noting how much ink Lewis brought along for the journey. Ambrose writes, “Lewis had plenty of ink left when he got home, enough for another voyage. That ink wasn’t critical for making the trip, but it was critical to make the expedition a success by recording its findings.”
Ink may not seem as important as the .54 caliber rifles or dry goods or navigational equipment that Lewis took with on the expedition. As Ambrose noted, ink wasn’t necessary to make the trip. But it was necessary to mark the trail.
Lewis’ expedition journals are priceless. He drew pictures of the animals he encountered. He noted the flora and fauna he saw. He used the ink to draw maps. He recorded every detail in his journals.
There is a difference between making a trip and marking a trail. Far too many of us make the trip, but we don’t mark the trail.”
In other words, mark your trail. Live knowing you were born for a purpose. Don’t just wait for something new in your life to happen, live each day to the most and if you are blessed with a next, be grateful. Be a difference maker! Death is not the saddest thing. To be given a life and never really live is sad. “Don’t just count the days – make the days count in 2019.”