My mom bought me a new planner for Christmas.
It is big.
It is really big.
It is about 2” thick. After I unwrapped it, I laughed and said, “Wow, you are optimistic I am going to have a lot to plan in 2021.”
The planner has been sitting on my desk for 2 weeks. I have looked at it every day, hesitant to write anything in it.
I have been thinking of health goals, writing hopes, school accomplishments, the spiritual health of my children, my marriage, finances, books I would like to read, homeschooling desires, and the list continues.
However, the ride of 2020 and the start to 2021 has me nervous to write goals down. I am wondering if any of them will happen.
2020 felt like a boxing match. Constantly on my toes, trying to duck to avoid getting knocked in the jaw.
When I look back, I see myself working hard at defense. Hands at chin height, a good stance enabling to shift my weight, trying to anticipate 2 or 3 moves ahead, and yet . . . constantly taken off guard.
One of Muhammad Ali’s famous quotes was, “Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.”
This quote reminds me that boxers do not win matches by just floating around the ring. They do have to avoid being knocked out. But when the moment is right, they sting like a bee.
Paul says something similar in 2 Timothy 1:7,
“For God has not given us a spirit of timidity,
but of power and love and discipline.”
Our goals and hopes are important. We are to pursue them bravely.
2020 came with some limitations. 2021 is starting the same way.
Julie Canlis wrote a little book called A Theology of the Ordinary. She writes, “Let us take Adam and Eve, who are not portrayed as superheroes with infinite capacity. The inspired Scriptures instead present them as creatures with limitations, over whom the Lord pronounces His extra blessing of ‘it is good.’ To live within these limitations can become, as the Psalmist says, a spacious place (Psalm 16).”
We have spent 9 months learning our new limitations. We know what they are, and we are ready for them. Though 2021 has gotten off to a rocky start, let’s not live it only defensively but offensively. Together, let’s go after our goals bravely with love and power and sting 2021 like a bee!
I am going to write my first goal today!
What is one goal you have for 2021?
