by Christine Sine
Its that time of the year when we all resolve to be better people, look after ourselves more or just plain commit to do things we have not had time for last year. Most of us know that the resolutions we make will not be kept. By Valentine’s day we have forgotten, discarded or just plain ignored them.
Resolutions that stick must be incorporated into our spiritual disciplines.
First they should be made prayerfully, in a place of deep listening where we open ourselves to the spirit of God to speak into our lives and steer our course for the coming year. Regular evaluation in a place of deep listening is essential if we really want to take our resolutions seriously.
This year I have developed what I call the S.M.A.R.T.E.R. system (adapted from the SMART system I shared a few years ago)
collage – Joyce Withrow
Be Specific: Don’t say “I want to deepen my prayer life” but rather “I want to prayer 10 minutes more each day.” A prayer journal like collage journaling suggested by Jenneth Grazier, or my Lenten journal from a few years ago might help with this.
Make it Measurable: Intangible goals are impossible to track. When you reach the 5 minutes a day for 5 day goal in prayer celebrate it. Go on a retreat. When you reach your 10 minutes of prayer for 10 days celebrate with a party.
Make it Attainable: Is your goal within your ability to fulfill it? I cringe when people tell me about their goals to save the world or to transform the city in which they live – all within a 3 month period and without any training or expertise. More attainable goals might be – get involved in a local mission organization; increase my giving to charities by 50%. Take a course in city organization or social entrepreneurship or evangelism. These are attainable goals whose accomplishment gives great satisfaction.
Make it Realistic: Develop a plan for attaining your goals and enlist help in achieving them. Setting down tangible and measurable action steps that will keep you on track is extremely important. This helps us weigh the possibilities against the commitments we already have and makes us more aware of the time and resource commitments our goals demand. Enlisting help can often be a great reality check as our friends say “Have you thought of…?” or “When will you….? Paying close attention to their advice is an important part of the process.
Develop a Timetable. As the article I read this morning suggested: Timeliness adds urgency and reinforces accountability. This too is extremely important though we need to balance our timetables with the flexibility to change and adapt. There is no such thing as failure. Setbacks are merely obstacles to be navigated around. In the process we often discover a totally new and transformative path that God has for us. Willingness to negotiate obstacles gives us a sense of how determined we are to change our old habits.
Many resolutions require breaking with old, ingrained behaviors or attitudes. It takes time to transform habits and emotional reactions. So don’t give up because you ate a piece of cake or missed some gym time or snapped at a coworker or sibling. Genuine and lasting change does not come easily and it does not come overnight. It happens one day at a time, with a series of sustained, practical actions. If you are willing to be smart about pursuing your goal, you can be successful.
Plan times to evaluate your progress. Part of what we need to incorporate in our timetables is a process of evaluation. As I mentioned above, Tom and I go on regular retreats to refocus our lives and check in on how well we are keeping to what we sense is God’s purpose for us. Part of what we do is prayerfully look back at the goals we have set and talk about how well we are moving toward those goals. We listen to see if God would redirect or reform those resolutions and then develop a plan of action for the next few months to move us closer towards attaining those goals. In other words maintaining our resolutions has become an important and serious part of our spiritual disciplines.
Make sure you Remember. Most people I know who make new year’s resolutions do nothing to remind themselves of their resolutions. You might like to write them on a piece of paper, create a colourful meme like I did a couple of years ago or write a prayer that you place in the front of your bible and read the list each morning as part of your spiritual discipline. Or you might like to share with your small group or book club members and as them to keep you accountable.
So for a little advice on how to make S.M.A.R.T.E.R. goals this year, let me finish with some good thoughts from the apostle Paul in Hebrews 12:1-3 (NLT)
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up. (from Biblegateway.com)
By Lynne Baab —
A year is ending. A new year begins tomorrow. Newspapers and magazines are full of ideas for New Year’s resolutions, and how to keep them.
I wish more people wrote and talked about how to look back on the past year in a way that is fruitful and helpful. As a way to do that, I want to propose a prayer of examen for the whole year.
Examen is an ancient prayer form that focuses on identifying where God was present and where we resisted God. The prayer has four movements, which I’ll describe below. In many monastic settings, monks and nuns prayed the prayer of examen every night, looking back over the day.
The person who taught me examen called it “a gentle, unforced noticing.” I’m going to suggest numerous questions to reflect on. Please engage with these questions in an gentle, unforced way. Let the questions help you see God’s hand in your life and your response to God.
- Examen of Consciousness. Begin by thinking back over your year. What good things happened? Where did you see God’s hand in the good things? What aspects of the good things were clearly gifts from God?
What hard things happened? In what ways did God help you in the hard things? What good outcomes can you identify from the hard things?
Think back on the early months of the year. What were you praying for in those months? What answers did you see later in the year?
Use the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22-23 to look back at the year. In what moments did you experience love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness or self-control in yourself or in those who you love?
- Response to the Examen of Consciousness. In whatever way works for you, spend some time responding to God’s presence in your life in 2017. You may want to thank God verbally for the ways God was present in the year. You may want to imagine yourself turning to Jesus and smiling at him. You may want to sing a song or hymn.
- Examen of Conscience. Listen to your conscience to help identify the ways you resisted God this past year. Do you have clear instances when you know God was calling you to do something and you didn’t do it? Can you see times when you did something you know didn’t please God?
Go back to the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness or self-control – and ponder instances when the Holy Spirit may have been nudging you in the direction of one of those fruits, and you chose to do things your way.
Imagine that Jesus was walking beside you all year. What moments during the year would you have felt embarrassed or ashamed to have Jesus close by?
- Response to the Examen of Conscience. In whatever feels comfortable to you, bring those moments of resistance to God. You may want to ask God for forgiveness for the times you did not respond in obedience or love. You may want to read one of the penitential psalms as a way to bring these thoughts to God. Try Psalm 32, 51 or 130. You may want to say to yourself: “Whenever we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us” (based on 1 John 1:9).
Examen is a lovely prayer to do on our own or with others. If you have a spiritual partner – a friend, spouse, prayer partner – or a small group with whom you share honestly, consider working through the questions above with that person or group.
We rob ourselves of joy and peace when we forget to look back at the past and identify the places God was present. We rob ourselves of joy and peace when we neglect to confess our shortcomings and bask in God’s forgiveness of all our sins.
Opening the Door to the New Year!
Crossing the threshold into what God has in store.
Consider this past year,
Where have you been?
How was your journey?
Was it a season of OPEN DOORS or CLOSED DOORS?
Was it a season of slammed doors, or doors opened in invitation?
Look around you. Consider the doors you can see.
What kind of Door represents your last year?
What kind of Door represents the year ahead?
Consider the Door into the New Year:
Is the door squeaky?
Is it creaky?
Is it hard to open?
Is it locked and do you have the key?
Or maybe you need a new key?
Is it a new door?
Are there windows in the door or is it totally solid?
When you look inside, is there a room filled with light, warm and inviting, or do you
feel the space inside is dark and filled with unknown obstacles?
As you approach and cross the threshold and open the door to the New Year,
What do you need to leave behind?
What do you need to drop? Last week we talked about the fact that we cannot receive new gifts from God if our hands are full. CS Lewis says, “if our hands are full of too many packages, we cannot receive any new gifts.”
Are you carrying too many packages?
What packages do you need to drop?
Talk to God about this.
Allow God to show you what you need to put down, what you need to let go of in order to move through the new door.
Spend some time with God and ask God to show you what door you are in front of and how you need to walk into the New Year.
Take time to ask the questions “How do I need God to open doors for me in the New Year?”
And “What doors do I need God to close for me this next year? “ Pray and talk to God about this.
Take some time consider the doors. Those behind and those ahead.
You might choose to Draw or Journal about the door and be real with Jesus as you write/create. You might look through photos of doors to find a door that represents the door of the New Year to you. Print it out and carry it with you and allow Jesus to show you new things and open new doors.
And consider how you can open the door more to Jesus in the New Year!
JESUS SAYS:
Revelation 3:20The Message (MSG)
20-21 “Look at me. I stand at the door. I knock. If you hear me call and open the door, I’ll come right in and sit down to supper with you. Conquerors will sit alongside me at the head table, just as I, having conquered, took the place of honor at the side of my Father. That’s my gift to the conquerors!
Revelation 3:20New International Version (NIV)
20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
Revelation 3:20New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
20 Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.
freerangeworship.comhttps://www.freerangeworship.com/
by Christine Sine
As I look back on this last year and some of the pain and suffering it has unfolded it is hard to hold onto hope. But as I think of the new year that is coming, and the new possibilities it holds I am filled with hope.
As I await this new year, I have been meditating on a beautiful children’s book that was given to me this Christmas A Child’s Garden: A Story of Hope. It is a delightful, hope giving story of destruction and regeneration, of death giving way to life. May you too look forward with the hope of renewal and regrowth out of death and destruction.
By Piper Lin —
This year, our Christmas was small and intimate with just my aunt, Gary’s mom, and Connie’s family. We hosted the dinner and decided to do it the Taiwanese way – hotpot on our little dining table. It was refreshingly different, low stress and delicious. The night was beautiful with snow falling steadily outside, and holiday lights twinkling inside (Gary hung them up all around our dining room last minute, it’s lovely.) The kids ate lots of sweets, and got so many presents (which asks for a separate post later.)
The embarrassing truth is, I wasn’t feeling lovely at all in the weeks leading up to Christmas. I was feeling down and doing a lot of self-pitying over this lingering sickness I’ve had (the isolation and the inability to function like my normal self killed me), the stress of holiday shopping, the family photos not turning out well in prints, the guilt of not doing Christmas cards this year, the lack of ‘me time’ to pursue new passions, and the hard fact that we won’t get to see my sister and family in Taiwan this year.
But then a week before Christmas, while mindlessly scrolling through my email inbox, I clicked on this company‘s newsletter (that I normally just delete without reading) and was struck by this line: “embrace your season because your season is RIGHT NOW.”
I paused, and pondered.
As much as I’d like to deny it, a part of me does think that once Cece is older, I’d hopefully be able to sleep better, have more time for myself and Gary, and maybe find a job to bring in extra income to fund our Taiwan trips. As much as I’d like to say I stay present in my day-to-day, a part of me wishes we could go back to the family reunion last winter, while another part of me is simply trying to get through each day, and hope tomorrow I’d wake up without a painful headache and hurting jaw.
Elle says it well: “…but there is beauty in every moment of every day, even the darkest and saddest.” How true is that? Things may never be perfect, and while I sit and wish the hard times away, there is joy in every moment of every day, ready to be recognized, embraced and soaked in. As a child of God, this can’t be more true because He is faithful, His love is constant and I know He has the best plan for every stage of our lives.
So, I’m embracing my season right now, headaches and loneliness and all, and will continue it as my chosen phrase for the coming new year.
Hi I’m Piper! I am married to Gary, my love-at-first-sight when I was 16. We live in Gary’s hometown, Seattle, WA, and together we are raising four little amazing humans who sometimes we can’t believe are ours. I created my blog as a space as a way to practice self-care: here you can find me writing about motherhood reflections, bit + pieces of our family life, and things I love and find inspiring at pipesiclediaries.wordpress.com
by David Pott
Today’s post, a meditation on Malcolm Brocklesby’s: Madonna of the Cross was first published on ArtWay.eu and is reposted with permission. I was particularly impacted by the way the figure of the Madonna is integral with that of the Cross.
——————————————————————————————————————–
Mount Grace Priory near Northallerton in Yorkshire, England is a remarkable place to visit. Between 1398 and the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539 it was home to a community of hermit monks of the Carthusian order. The ruins of the cells of the monks surround a spacious courtyard and one cell has been restored.
Holman Hunt’s The Shadow of Death
On the site of the high altar there is what from a distance appears to be a cross, but as you get closer it is clear that it is a very striking sculpture of Mary offering the Christ Child for God’s purposes. The sculptor was Malcolm Brocklesby who lived from 1933 to 2010. His original inspiration for this work came from Holman Hunt’s The Shadow of Death (c. 1873) which is in the Manchester Art Gallery. In that painting Jesus is stretching out his arms after a hard day’s work in Joseph’s workshop and the evening sun casts a shadow on the wall behind. Mary, who is kneeling, sees the shadow as a premonition of Christ’s crucifixion.
Brocklesby had in mind to make a statue of the Madonna herself as a portent of the crucifixion and that if it was displayed, it would be lit in the low foreground to cast a shadow on the wall behind. However, as he worked on the maquette it seemed logical to fashion the back of the figure itself as the cross. This determined Mary’s posture with her shoulders back and with her arms horizontal, holding the Christ Child high in a position of dedication.
Malcolm Brocklesby: Madonna of the Cross
An inscription on the plaque in front of the sculpture outlines the message Brocklesby wanted to convey:
This Madonna is not the meek and subservient figure portrayed in many Renaissance works, but a determined and intelligent young woman who understands the wonder and the importance of her calling as she dedicates her Child to the purpose of her Creator. She is also aware of the suffering that this will entail. The figure of the Madonna is integral with that of the Cross, the stark and terrible symbol at the heart of Christianity, which is an inescapable part of her existence. Her expression, however, is more of serenity than anguish. She is looking beyond Calvary to the Resurrection and the way in which she holds the Christ Child high suggests the subsequent Ascension rather than the immediate prospect of a sacrificial death.
It is noticeable that Mary’s dress, with the rope tied around her waist, is a reminder of the monks who lived and worshipped on this site. Perhaps the sculptor fashioned his work in such a way that the figure can be seen as either male or female and so can speak to everyone about giving all that we have to God.
Malcolm Brocklesby: Madonna of the Cross
Mary stands erect offering her only son, just as Abraham was ready to sacrifice Isaac and God was ready to give his only Son. It is a position of total vulnerability and availability to God. This is the crossed-out life, indeed from behind the sculpture only the cross remains. Mary is fused with Christ in the cruciform shape. “I am crucified with Christ,” St. Paul says to describe this loss of ego and abandonment to the will of God.
*******
Malcolm Brocklesby: Madonna of the Cross, 1996, Mount Grace Priory, Yorkshire, England.
Malcolm Brocklesby (1933-2010) was a mining engineer who took up sculpture. His sculptures are in numerous collections in Yorkshire and beyond, his best-known pieces being his military figures The Defenders at Helmsley Castle and his Madonna of the Cross on the high altar at Mount Grace Priory.
With David Pott in Bishop Auckland
David Pott lives near Bishop Auckland in County Durham. He has had a long interest in the history of monastic communities and the development of new monastic communities. David and his wife Pam are companions of the Northumbria Community, see www.northumbriacommunity.org.
For information about visiting Grace Mount Priory please see
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/mount-grace-priory/
by Christine Sine
The long awaited day has arrived. Joy has come down, a new world has begun. Yet as I sit here this morning I am very aware of the places where joy still needs to be revealed. It is reflected in my rather unusual nativity scene this year – A Christ candle shining brightly in the middle of an array of animal planters with succulents in them.
Joy to the world – not just me, or you or my neighbors near and far. Not just people past, present and future, but all the world, all the animals, birds and sea creatures, all the insects and spiders and microbes. Today we remind ourselves that joy entered our world as an infant, not fully grown but needing to be nurtured, cared for and protected, needing to be taught and encouraged until he reached full maturity.
As I reflect on this my heart sings, and I do rejoice. God is in the business of making all things new and asks us to care for the small seeds of that newness that we see emerging.
As an Amazon Associate, I receive a small amount for purchases made through appropriate links.
Thank you for supporting Godspace in this way.
When referencing or quoting Godspace Light, please be sure to include the Author (Christine Sine unless otherwise noted), the Title of the article or resource, the Source link where appropriate, and ©Godspacelight.com. Thank you!