New Year, New Desire

It’s not uncommon to make New Year’s resolutions.

Unless you’re me. I almost never make them. I’m what you call a New Year’s resolution entertainer. I entertain the idea of having one, and then I forget about it a few days later.

It’s as if it never existed: Poof, gone, baby, gone. Well this year, I decided I should have some goals for the year. They wouldn’t be resolutions, necessarily, but aspirations for things to accomplish. If you’re like me, you probably have a bucket list of sorts, or life ambitions you aim to accomplish before you die.

I, too, have a bucket list. It’s comprised of the Big 5 (home ownership, graduate school, publishing my first book, marriage and becoming a mommy) followed by the rest of the list, which makes up about 50 other big dreams and goals for my life.

That list, which I’ll spare you the gritty details, is comprised of traveling to specific areas of the world, learning two other languages, meeting and interviewing personal heroes of mine, and various aspects of ministry and humanitarian work.

It’s likely a standard list with a few exceptional “Wouldn’t this be amazing if I actually got the chance to do this” items.

So with the start of the New Year, and a fresh desire to want to check off a few more of my bucket list items, I realized I had already checked a huge one off my list.

Because I bought a home a few days before Christmas, I can officially take the goal of becoming a homeowner off my Big 5 list.

Alongside that revelation, I realized I’ve been putting in motion the possibility for me to check off a few other huge goals this year. I’m applying for graduate school, and I’ve hired a documentarian to assist me on a two-month journey abroad so I can complete my first book, “Breaking Bread: One Table, Many Faiths.” Both of those are supposed to be completed before the end of the year.

Could it be possible that I’ll have the opportunity to say I’ve checked off three of the Big 5 by the end of the year? I am so excited to say, “Yes, I think it is possible.”

So while I’m not a big New Year’s resolution gal, I am a goal-oriented person. And I am a dream-oriented person. You can’t complete the goal, any goal, if you aren’t dreaming first.

So I hope you all take a moment to dream big this year, and consider what goals you might be able to check off your bucket lists.

It’s not about having a resolution. Anyone can make those. It’s about allowing God to take your dreams and goals for the year, and showing you how to bring them to the finish line before Christmas.

Happy New Year, all.