As the new year begins my mind has turned to evaluation of 2022, and what the Lord would have me do in 2023. This is a healthy thing of course, and it leads to dreaming big dreams, along with development of fresh plans.
But the implementation involves something far less exciting…..
Write things down!!!
I am one of those people who will have absolutely incredible plans, but almost never see those plans come to fruition. This is because I’m activity focused instead of planning focused. The truth is planning for me is boring (except in the new year when I’m able to put together exciting new ones) so I’d much rather go out DOING THINGS instead of thinking about them.
The problem of course is I became distracted and random when it comes to activity. It’s the old “Tyranny of the Urgent” that goes around putting out fires all day, and at the end of it hasn’t really accomplished much.
Experience has taught me writing down my tasks on note-cards, and then transferring them to a larger notecard is the way to get things done. But after a week or so I’ll quit because writing things down and processing ideas is “boring” or in my mind unimportant.
Friday morning, I was praying about how the Lord would have me achieve more in 2023. And His response was to embrace the boring parts of ministry.
We often think of growth as one exciting experience after another but that just isn’t true! For every moment of exhilarating excitement, there are hours of careful planning and “boring work.”
I’m not saying we should give up on our dreams and big visions for 2023. But along with those exciting experiences we must embrace the boring parts as well. For as we break those big dreams into smaller tasks on notecards, thats when the true excitment begins.
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