Crossing the New Year Time Bridge: Three Items for the Time Traveler
Posted: Saturday, December 31, 2011
by Mogama
http://www.mogama.info
Some of my childhood memories are wrapped around moments when my parents or guardians told me to pack for an impending trip to the city or to a church conference. In those days there was very little to pack for any trip regardless of how near or far we had to travel. As an adult with more stuff now, packing for travel has become a little more involved. Sometimes tedious. Often dreaded. Yet still with heart-pounding excitement, depending on the destination and purpose of my trip.
There is one thing that happens every time I pack for a trip: I find some things that I no longer need but have been taking up space in my house, in the closets, in the draws, even in the garage. Packing time becomes throw-away time. And that opens the door to the new and possible as an outcome of this trip.
The passing of one year and the advent of the new year is like preparing for travel. Packing up. Thinking of what to bag up. What to leave alone. What this trip will accomplish.
This year as I prepare to address Church For All on New Year's Day, the words of Moses in Psalm 90 keep popping up. Moses was perhaps the most traveled person in all 1,189 chapters of the Bible. One of his trips lasted 40 years, and he didn't even reach his destination! During his many trips, whether fleeing the sword of Egypt's Pharaoh, or liberating slaves and leading them through desert terrian, Moses learned a lot about travel within the perimeters of time.
Moses points out that, as one traveling through time, a person must remain mindful of the brevity of life, his/her lifetime ( Psalm 90:4-6,10 ). Second, the time traveler must remember his/her need for wisdom to make crucial decisions and handle life issues with skill throughout the journey ( Psalm 90:12 ).
Being mindful that life is short, and that wisdom is crucial, there are three items to consider as we cross the time bridge from the beaten paths of the old year to the unproven highway of the new year that stretches before our curious eyes. We need a trash can, a treasure box, and a tree called opportunity.
Trash Can
It is not easy sometimes to bag certain trashy items, because we humans attract trash and like to hang on to some. But no matter how attractive some items may seem, they must be thrown away so they don't become baggage that will sabotage the promises of the new year. A trash is anything that has been used, has become useless, has expired, or even harmful to keep around. Some things that I once cherished may have become trash, and I must consider them "rubbish" ( Philippians 3:7-8). When I refuse to trash my trash, it makes me smell like trash.
Treasure Box
Every life is a treasure to be treasured. Every life has treasures that must be treasured. Depending on the quality of your life, you may have to look hard to find your treasure, but it is there somewhere. A treasure is something of value, something of worth, something of enduring quality. What goes into your treasure box should be those things that will not only enhance and enrich your life now, but will add value to others and contribute to your legacy long after your life clock stops ticking. In my treasure box I put my personal effects (my spirituality and my health), my relationships (family, true friends, at least one real enemy), and my resources (my income, other assets and how I manage them). Treasures should be matters of the heart ( Matthew 6:19-21).
Opportunity
Here is what should make the new year most exciting: Opportunity, adorned with branches of faith (reasons to believe), hope (expectations of better things), grace (another chance to do it over and get it right). Opportunities are the blank check of time delivered to you in radiant wrappings inscribed with "Happy New Year". The new year is intended to be a tree of life, but it depends on what you'll do or not do with it.
What does it take to sink our teeth into the fruit picked from Opportunity Tree, to maximize every real opportunity that could make this my breakthrough or breakout year ( Ephesians 5:15-16)? It takes vision and discipline . With vision you imagine the possibilities of what can be done, who you can become. With discipline (self-control, self-direction and self-supervision) you do whatever it takes to bring together your talent, education, experience, skill, relationships and resources to maximize the opportune moments of the year. The goal of vision-driven discipline is to move from idea to reality.
Keep in mind that opportunity is not always a chance to "opt in", to join or start something new. Opportunity may also offer you the perfect timing to "opt out", to avoid or quit something that has served its purpose in your life. It takes much wisdom to discern between positive opportunity (time to opt in) and negative opportunity (time to opt out).
With all that in mind, let's load up on optimism, write your one-sentence New Year's Resolution (mission statement for the year), head for Time Bridge, and glide into the New Year, without the trash bag, of course.
I wish all my family, friends and fans a Healthy New Year. ~mogama~
The passing of one year and the advent of the new year is like preparing for travel. Packing up. Thinking of what to bag up. What to leave alone. What this trip will accomplish.
This year as I prepare to address Church For All on New Year's Day, the words of Moses in Psalm 90 keep popping up. Moses was perhaps the most traveled person in all 1,189 chapters of the Bible. One of his trips lasted 40 years, and he didn't even reach his destination! During his many trips, whether fleeing the sword of Egypt's Pharaoh, or liberating slaves and leading them through desert terrian, Moses learned a lot about travel within the perimeters of time.
Moses points out that, as one traveling through time, a person must remain mindful of the brevity of life, his/her lifetime ( Psalm 90:4-6,10 ). Second, the time traveler must remember his/her need for wisdom to make crucial decisions and handle life issues with skill throughout the journey ( Psalm 90:12 ).
Being mindful that life is short, and that wisdom is crucial, there are three items to consider as we cross the time bridge from the beaten paths of the old year to the unproven highway of the new year that stretches before our curious eyes. We need a trash can, a treasure box, and a tree called opportunity.
Trash Can
It is not easy sometimes to bag certain trashy items, because we humans attract trash and like to hang on to some. But no matter how attractive some items may seem, they must be thrown away so they don't become baggage that will sabotage the promises of the new year. A trash is anything that has been used, has become useless, has expired, or even harmful to keep around. Some things that I once cherished may have become trash, and I must consider them "rubbish" ( Philippians 3:7-8). When I refuse to trash my trash, it makes me smell like trash.
Treasure Box
Every life is a treasure to be treasured. Every life has treasures that must be treasured. Depending on the quality of your life, you may have to look hard to find your treasure, but it is there somewhere. A treasure is something of value, something of worth, something of enduring quality. What goes into your treasure box should be those things that will not only enhance and enrich your life now, but will add value to others and contribute to your legacy long after your life clock stops ticking. In my treasure box I put my personal effects (my spirituality and my health), my relationships (family, true friends, at least one real enemy), and my resources (my income, other assets and how I manage them). Treasures should be matters of the heart ( Matthew 6:19-21).
Opportunity
Here is what should make the new year most exciting: Opportunity, adorned with branches of faith (reasons to believe), hope (expectations of better things), grace (another chance to do it over and get it right). Opportunities are the blank check of time delivered to you in radiant wrappings inscribed with "Happy New Year". The new year is intended to be a tree of life, but it depends on what you'll do or not do with it.
What does it take to sink our teeth into the fruit picked from Opportunity Tree, to maximize every real opportunity that could make this my breakthrough or breakout year ( Ephesians 5:15-16)? It takes vision and discipline . With vision you imagine the possibilities of what can be done, who you can become. With discipline (self-control, self-direction and self-supervision) you do whatever it takes to bring together your talent, education, experience, skill, relationships and resources to maximize the opportune moments of the year. The goal of vision-driven discipline is to move from idea to reality.
Keep in mind that opportunity is not always a chance to "opt in", to join or start something new. Opportunity may also offer you the perfect timing to "opt out", to avoid or quit something that has served its purpose in your life. It takes much wisdom to discern between positive opportunity (time to opt in) and negative opportunity (time to opt out).
With all that in mind, let's load up on optimism, write your one-sentence New Year's Resolution (mission statement for the year), head for Time Bridge, and glide into the New Year, without the trash bag, of course.
I wish all my family, friends and fans a Healthy New Year. ~mogama~
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