Today’s Flowers, Tomorrow’s Bouquet- A reflection on dreams, fresh vision, and the New Year

Happy New Year Friends!

And Happy January!

New Years’ Day has quickly become one of my favorite times of the year. I love my routines and I have found I really like setting goals. January used to be such a daunting month for me. It’s so cold where I live and the month itself feels like the new year itself. But I have come to see a different side of January.

It’s a whole month.

It’s full of wonderment and grace.

It’s a chance to pause, grieve what is needed to and get ready for what is to come.

A whole month to behold the Lord and spend time listening to him about what we both want this year to look like. We were made to be image barriers of our Creator and enter into a partnership with him were we overtime learn to rule over our domain. In Dallas Willard’s The Scandal of the Kingdom, he states” When you bring all the details of your life under the rule of God, the outcome is that you arable to do all the things he said”.(116). 1 I love that when I bring all of the things I have agency of under the authority of Jesus, I can’t fail. My plans may not go as planned, but in taking agency over what I can control and giving Him the rest, I will never be without. I am not without.

We together are in a partnership and get to dream and create vision together for this new year. Proverbs 29:18 says “Where there is no vision, the people perish”.2 I love that! If our goal for the new year is simply to survive it and make it through, our vision is entirely too small. Jesus didn’t come for us to have a bare minimum life, but one that is full and abundant! We can enter this new year dragging, or we can envision now with agency and ownership with the expectation to see God to be God this year.

For myself, 2024 was a transformative year. At the end of it, it felt like a new kind of foundation was laid. It felt like a consecration before an alter kind of year. But this year feels like the building of a temple. Now I mean that liturgically, not literally. Accurately, speaking we are already the temple. It’s spirit is already moving and speaking within.

So here is my fresh vision for the year:

1.Becoming more joyful.

Joy doesn’t just happen. It’s a choice that is made regardless of my circumstances. I will take agency along with Jesus by practicing gratitude and celebrating others for every small and every big thing. Ran for the first time in months- let’s celebrate! Signed a new lease- Dinner at our spot? Let’s go!

2. To learn different ways to give myself grace in finding a rhythm through my first year in Seminary.

This feels like a challenging one for me. I love planning. I love my google calendar. And I love my morning routine! It’s my favorite time of the day. The sun rises, it’s quiet, it’s a place I go. Just me and Jesus- Somewhere Only We Know style. But as my schedule changes, and I learn to adapt to being a Full-time working professional and a Full-Time Seminarian, trial and error is bound to occur and that is okay! Luckily Jesus., my friend and Rabbi, is an expert in all things grace.

3. Finding a healthy balance of living life in community and meeting with a Spiritual mentor regularly.

I feel very fortunate to have a wonderful and diverse community surrounding me on all sides. My goal this year is simply to go deeper and not just share my life, but to be in life with them.

As well is finding a Spiritual mentor, now more than ever I feel like it’s important for me to be poured into with wisdom and counsel. The best decision I made in 2024 was getting a Life Coach to help me walk through relational skills, discernment, and walking in my calling. I could not be more grateful.

As I am entering this season I am reminded of the Lord’s faithfulness.

I am reminded of how present He is and He is with me wherever and everywhere I go- and He really sees me. He really hears me, He really comes near to be with me.

I am reminded how instead of a quick fix, He takes me on a journey. He does this for me to exercise my heart in obedience. He does this so that I learn how to trust Him at His word and see how good and kind He is. And maybe He even does this because He wants to spend more time with me and go for a walk with me.

I am reminded He never forgets my dreams, my desires, or my prayers. I am so thankful for that. This year instead of dreaming on my own, I am choosing to create vision with the Lord. I am sinking in deep in this partnership.

Lord, you are making all things new. You are resurrecting old dreams;and giving birth to new ones. God of glory, you give me dreams like flowers, and as I collect them, they become a bouquet that I get to carry with me everywhere I go like a little girl receiving a bouquet from her Father after her ballet recital.

Notes

1 .Dallas Willard. The Scandal of the Kingdom: How the Parables of Jesus Revolutionize Life with God (2024), Zondervan Books.116.

Proverbs 29:18, KJV. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+29%3A18&version=KJV