A New Year Is a Good Excuse for a New Beginning

The end of a year is a good time for reflection. Some of my verses of prayer last year were:

"Lead me, O LORD, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face." Psalm 5:8

"Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies." Psalm 27:11

"Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?" Psalm 77:13

I know that the only way for me is to follow God. When I step off the path He made for me, I fall and hurt myself and those around me. The fear of the Lord and the love I have for Him hold me to the course He sets for me.

A new year is a good excuse for a new beginning. I'm so thankful that God's mercies are new every morning, and I don't have to wait twelve months to receive them. But I digress...

Since before Thanksgiving, my husband and I have been doing some soul-searching, praying, and careful planning for 2012. I found it most fitting that our pastor started the year with a sermon on taking the next step in faith, for that is exactly where we, as a family, are at.

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1

2012 will require our family to have faith. I anticipate a great deal of change for us, but I'll only focus on one in this post.

Over the Christmas vacation, a few things were revealed to me about myself.

1. I don't enjoy playing board games or card games and have a terrible short attention span when I do play them, much to my family's chagrin. I'm more willing to play a game of monopoly with them on the iPad than on the board because it goes faster, but even then I have little patience. While my family can easily get caught up in some Wii game competition or playing with each other on the iPads/iPods. You'll see them sitting around the table or sprawled across a bed holding their idevices and talking to each other about the game they are playing. Not me. I am quite content to disappear into a world I create of my own...through writing.
2. I am impatient with most people's concept of fun. I'm not a sports fan. I don't particularly enjoy playing baseball or football or what-have-you, and there are very few movies/shows I consider worth sitting through. Am I Grinch or what? And I hate arguments/discussions that contain disagreements, where one person pits himself against another for the sheer joy of debate.
3. I have moments of intense loneliness of which I would not want anyone to fix. What? I loved that Christmas day was just my family and I. We're too far to visit extended family, and no one in our church ever invites us over for Christmas or Thanksgiving, etc. because they have their own families...and I'm okay with this. Okay, so I admit to shedding a few tears when I'd go on Facebook and see that so and so spent time with so and so sometime during the two weeks of Christmas vacation. And then I ask myself, "But are you really unhappy over it?" Well, let's just say I'm content. My health issues makes it difficult for people to have me over and in all honesty, I get tired very easily. While I'd love to visit with friends, sometimes an evening out can drain me for the next day or so.
   
4. I could always have people over. Yes. This is something I very much enjoy--happy endorphins multiply many times when I get to entertain. But isn't "have someone over" the pat answer given to people who feel lonely? In my teen and early twenties I discovered that inviting people over only intensified the incredible feeling of loneliness because it led to people saying no or just not showing up, and you sit in your living room with snack food all around you and no one to share it with. Of course, I don't have that problem anymore. Just the memory of it.
   

Now, before you start thinking I'm depressed, I'm not. I'm building to something.

The last two weeks of 2011 provided for me time to reflect on who I am in relation to God, who God is, and how I can better serve/please/glorify Him. That's the umbrella. Then I began to look what was underneath the umbrella. What were these statements covering?

I've lived many places in my life. I've seen people come to new areas and begin a new life. I've seen people come and go from churches, and I've asked why?

Like it or not, we require companionship. Some people more than others. But where do we seek companionship? One question I asked my husband was, "Where do you feel like you belong?" As I pondered our response to this question, both as individuals and as a couple, and then looking at it as a family, I began to see how important fun is. Yup, back up to those four points above.

I find working fun (except housework...that's not so fun). I find writing fun. I find yard work fun. I find reading fun. But these things are best done alone (well, it depends what your work is). People, when they seek out fellowship usually gravitate toward that which is fun. Okay, I know, you all learned this back when you were a toddler or preschooler...I admit I'm a little slow.

So, to make a long story short (yes, I know, too late), this year I plan to have more fun...well, more of what most people call fun. Okay, so you're asking, why? Why do what other people want for fun rather than what I want? Because a part of pleasing God means providing for others a good fellowship. If good fellowship for someone else means doing things I don't particularly enjoy, then I want to be more willing to do that for that person's good. If doing so will make her life a little less lonely, or keep her from going to the world and all its traps and pitfalls for fun, then it is well worth it.

See, we live in an age when people can be entertained every minute of the day. Temptation to have ungodly fellowship is an iPhone away. Four hundred years ago they feared small pox and storms and wild animals. Today we fear computer viruses, and media storms, and two-legged vicious creatures. So we need each other. We need to enjoy each others' company.

There are those that wander the periphery of our churches, perhaps knowing that what is taught there is good, but not knowing how to become a part of the actual fellowship, not feeling like they belong. Yes, they can go to church functions. Yes, they can help in some sort of church ministry. But at the end of the day, who will be their friend? Who will they sit across the table from and play some whacky game that gets their mind off their troubles for just a moment? And through that fun, develop a lasting relationship that helps them draw closer to God.

Yeah, this probably sounds like an excuse to just have fun, but if you knew me, you'd know that grasping this is a big thing.

I'll probably not get over the fact that for me, personally, playing a board game or a Wii game is a waste of time. I'd rather go do something productive. But, if doing such a thing would keep another from being lonely, from seeking companionship with the world, and help that person feel like she belongs, then I need to be willing to sacrifice my precious time.

This is only one of my new beginnings for 2012, I have many that I'm holding close to my heart, waiting to see where God leads. 2012 will be a year of major changes for me, of that I am quite certain.

"Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." Hebrews 10:25