This Year

So I just discovered J.J. Heller's music.  And this song with it's simple and winsome message has taken me by storm.  First I'm going to share the lyrics with you.  It's brand new, written just a few weeks ago for 2015!  Then I'm going to share the journal prayer/new year manifesto I wrote with the inspiration of this song!

This Year - J.J. Heller

This year
I'm not looking back to who I was
Because I'm gonna be someone I've never been
This year
I'm not focused on the cracks in the walls
Not keeping track of all the times I fall
This year

So long to last year
It's all becoming so clear
There is no use living in regret
Let's fight a good fight
Train our eyes to find the light
And make this year the best one yet
Starting right here...happy New Year!

This year
I plan on thinking less of "I" and "Me"
I resolve to think of "Us" and "We"
This year
I can't wait to see what good will come
To feel alive instead of feeling numb
This year.

Yeah.  I love it.  To be honest?  I'm still trying to look back on who I was last year....or still am.  It's not like the new year snuck up on me, but let's face it....are we ever really ready for it?  I mean, I don't go in for all the "New Year's resolutions", but the beginning of a new year always feels like a bit of a new start, and I have this ideal that I want to start it off right.  Trouble is, that rarely happens.  So while I am looking forward with hope and expectation to what God has in store this year, a part of me is still stuck in 2014, thinking, "Wait, go back to January 1st....I wasn't ready!"  I feel like a lot of  my old year is bleeding into my new year.

But see, it doesn't all depend on me!  And it doesn't depend on you!  So take a few more moments and listen to where God is directing my heart, and maybe yours as well, to focus as the dew stills drips fresh from 2015.

God, this year is yours.  And I am yours.  Let this reality fill me long and deep.

So what if last year seeps into this January?  You are bigger than that!  I could have so many dreams, goals, agendas for the days to come....yet they will all come to nothing unless You are leading me.

So give me Your dreams!  Give me the the desires of my heart....Your desires for me....make them mine!  Here I lay not my plans for 2015, but my hopes grounded in You and the desires of Your Spirit that burns within me.

This year, let there be....

Less complaining, more Thanksgiving.
Less negativity, more Joy!
Less hurry and busy, more seeing and living wholly in the now....
More slowing and stopping for the ones I love and the person in front of me.

Less of me, more of us...and more of You!
Less wishful thinking, more taking action.
Less daydreaming, more experiencing life.
Less delusion, more of Your reality!

Less talk, more walking it out.

More singing, more dancing, more cuddling the little bro, more listening....not only to words but to hearts.

Less of temporal, more of eternal.
Less taking, more giving.
Less stress, more prayer.
Less entertainment, more real-life adventure!

Less shopping and buying and consuming....
More serving and pouring out and giving of quality time.

Less collecting of stuff....more getting rid of clutter and creating space.
Less holding on, more letting go.
Less crowding of stuff and days and hours....
More margin and God-space.

Less hiding, more honesty.
Less passive silence, more worthwhile communication.
Less criticism, more grace.
Less focus on "don't-haves", more focus on the gifts all around me.

More affirming.  More enjoying.  More loving.

In the words of Jesus, from John 10:10,
"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.  I came that they may have life and have it more abundantly!"