New Years Archives - Lauren Sparks

As we all breathe a sigh of relief to see 2020 go, I want to wish you a Happy New Year, bloggy friends!! On this first day of 2021, I find myself recovering from Covid-19, so I decided to loan my web space to Shannon Pugh. Although she doesn’t call herself a writer, she uses words beautifully and faithfully in a monthly newsletter. She and her ministry team mean so much to my family, and I couldn’t wait to share her thoughts on the turning of the calendar with you:

I’m not an anthropology buff. To be honest, I had to look up the word “anthropology” to make sure it actually means what I thought it meant (the study of human societies and cultures). But from what I do know about the history of humanity across the ages, every culture has developed some sort of system for marking the passage of time. Our current system of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, etc. is apparently called the “Gregorian calendar”… I learned something new today! Thanks Wikipedia! At IBC [Irving Bible Church], we observe Advent and Lent, which are part of the Liturgical year that many denominations of Christianity follow.

Not only do we use these systems to mark the passage of time, but we also use them to give meaning to the passage of time. We assign importance to specific dates like birthdays, holidays, anniversaries of important events and even seasons. Again, this is across cultures and over the course of human history. Time is important!

And I think that’s because we know, deep down, that our lives have a purpose. It’s not just about surviving as long as possible and then dying as painlessly as possible. It’s about making daily choices to better the world around us in some way. For me, it’s about making life on earth as much like heaven as it can possibly be. May Your kingdom come, Lord, may Your will and work be done on earth, as it already is in heaven.

There’s nothing magical about January 1st — really, it’s just the day after December 31st (and both of those are just words and numbers that help us mark the passing of time). However, those days have had special importance for hundreds and hundreds of years. Because, although nothing actually changes when the clock turns to 12:00 on January 1st, it’s an opportunity for us to realign our priorities and renew our commitment to make the world around us a better place, one moment at a time.

I, for one, don’t want life to just float by and slip through my hands. But that requires me to be intentional about how I act and react on a daily basis… not just the big events, but the little decisions I make moment-by-moment. So each year I take some time in December and January to look back and look forward. I use a tool that was given to me by a mentor years ago, and I can’t overstate how much it’s changed the way I approach each new year. That tiny, seemingly insignificant difference between 11:59pm on December 31st and 12:00am on January 1st has become a chance for me to try to end each year having done my best to made the world a better place in even just the tiniest way.

If you would like to join me in looking back and looking forward, you can find the questions I use here. Nothing will magically change on January 1, 2021 (as much as we would like it to!) The only thing we have control over is the way we approach each minute, hour, day, week, and month. When we choose to do that with the goal of improving the world around us, it really truly does make a difference!

Shannon Pugh taught special education for 9 years before leading the special needs ministry at Irving Bible Church in the Dallas, Texas area. She has held that role since 2012 – first as a volunteer, then part-time staff and now full-time.

And now for this week’s featured post!

All of my co-hosts on this link up are excellent writers, but I try not to feature them here (although I hope you visit each of their sites regularly). Sometimes, though, their words are too good not to share with you. Heather Hart of candidlychristian.com wrote about the most important part of the Christmas season (really any season) in How to Pray for the Unsaved at Christmas. Praying for and sharing the love of Jesus with those who don’t yet know Him lends others the hope we feel during Advent. And I think everyone could use this kind of hope. Always, and especially right now.

1. Share 1 or 2 of your most recent CHRISTIAN LIVING posts. (No DIY, crafts, recipes, or inappropriate articles.) All links are randomly sorted.

2. Comment on 1 or 2 other links. Grace & Truth linkup encourages community.

3. Every host features one entry from the previous week. To be featured, include this button or link back here on your post (mandatory to be featured, but not to participate).

We encourage you to follow our hosts on their blogs or social media.

MAREE DEE – Embracing the Unexpected
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HEATHER HART & VALERIE RIESE – Candidly Christian
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LAUREN SPARKS
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LISA BURGESS – Lisa notes
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Although I kinda tried to avoid it, I think I have to do a New Year’s resolution adjacent post. It’s not really a resolution post because it has been years since I’ve set those (mostly due to lousy follow-thru on my part). But God and I are working on some things, and in the spirit of authenticity and my own ability to process, I think I need to write about it. Let me begin by saying that this is all very much a work in progress and I’ve cried many tears already this very day. I am as tender as the incisions from my recent surgery. My physical and emotional wounds are painful, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t promoting healing. I think the waterworks are a sign that my hard heart is softening.

I should probably back up a bit. If you have been reading my blog for any length of time (or you are an IRL friend), you know that the last two years have been tough for my family. The dark tunnel has seemed darker the last couple of months because I had much hope at the end of last year that we were putting hard times behind us and launching into a fabulous new year. But 2018 was NOT fabulous and the light at the end of this tunnel looks farther away than ever. While lots of my friends and fellow authors have picked a word for the year to be their focus and inspiration, I relate to Jami Amerine from Sacred Ground, Sticky Floors when she said, “If I picked a word for the year, it would be obscene, and I try not to cuss.”

While swimming the butterfly in a pool of self-pity, I questioned myself about why my kicks and strokes were drowning me. And the honest thought I had was, “Well, up until now we’ve lead a pretty charmed life.” And as soon as that thought crossed over the pathways and synapses of my brain, I said out loud, “WHAT?! Are you serious? Charmed?” From the beginning of our marriage, my husband and I have battled through the fall-out that broken marriages inevitably leave. We have a severely mentally and physically handicapped adult daughter who will forever be dependent on us. We dealt with financial woes, life-threatening seizures, my sub-clinical eating disorder and chronic pain. And yet…I honestly meant that my life, until 2 years ago, was charmed. But certainly no one else would agree. How can I really believe that the sum of all those problems equaled roses, but now I have thorns?

The only conclusion that makes any sense in this, is that things really haven’t changed. Some of the individual situations have changed, but in the big picture of our lives, I have trouble now and I had trouble then. So what is different? Sigh. I got tired. And I allowed my circumstances to change how I viewed God. I’ve never lost my faith. I made a decision a long time ago to give my life to God because He gave everything for me. I’ve never second guessed it. But somewhere along the way, I let my feelings cloud my vision of what is true. I stopped feeling in my heart that God showed kindness to me, even when my head knew the truth that He loves me in ways and volumes that I may NEVER understand.

A couple of Sundays ago in church, one of our staff ministers quoted 2 Timothy 4:5 NASB “But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” This verse hit me between the eyes – right where my two eyebrows want to become one. I’ve stalled myself. I’ve been waiting (and way too focused, I might add) for our situations to improve. I don’t think there is anything wrong with praying for that…and hoping for that. But with the end of hardship and suffering, and not the finished work of Jesus Christ, as the nucleus of my hope, I bought a one-way ticket to personal disappointment and ineffectual ministry. The passage says I am to “endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” In my efforts to ESCAPE, rather than endure, hardship, I have neglected the latter two. And so this becomes my verse for 2019.

There’s an old joke about an old couple who saw a much younger couple drive by in a pickup truck. The pretty girl was sitting in the middle of the truck – as close to the boy as she could get. The older woman wistfully looks at the space between her husband and herself, saying, “Remember when we used to sit like that?” Her husband’s response? “I haven’t moved.”

God is wooing me with, “I haven’t moved.” “I haven’t changed.” “I am as kind as I have always been.”

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In previous efforts to extricate myself from a funk, I picked up the discipline of gratitude journaling. I still think it’s a good idea, but I think I need to tweak it a little. Along with writing out 2 Timothy 4:5 every day, I have decided to write about the sweetness of God. Every day I plan to record one way that God is sweet to me. Because I need reminding. I don’t know if, at the end of 2019, I will find my circumstances significantly improved; but I know that if I rehearse God’s word and remind myself how good and kind He is, that by December 31st I’ll be sitting closer to Him than I have in a long time. That’s a better goal than any other I could dream up.

“There’s a private place reserved for the lovers of God, where they sit near him and receive the revelation-secrets of his promises.” Psalm 25:14 The Passion Translation