Happy 2018! The holiday season was joyous this year, as always. Along with celebrating, I added in surgery to remove my thyroid on December 15. You know, you have to fit medical things in before you hit the new deductible. I made sure I had emails written ahead of time for the last few weeks of the year, expecting to be back at it by January 1. Foolish me! I'm now doing much better, but the last few weeks have been lots of recuperating and catching up on things I wasn't able to accomplish between the holidays and the surgery. On top of that, all my planning for the first half of 2018 has been squeezed into the last few weeks. But enough about me!
We're now almost three weeks into 2018. What do you hope 2018 holds for you? Have you considered what it will take to make those hopes become reality?
Recently Greg Tosi commented on Facebook that he is changing his greeting for others regarding the new year. In the past, his wish was “I hope 2018 is your best year yet!” Some have responded to him with, “Me, too. I'm tired of waiting for my luck to change.” He's changing his greeting to “Make 2018 your best year yet!”
As I thought about this, I realized that I've often allowed fear and waiting to make hope a passive word, not an active word. I went to the Bible and did a search on the word hope. In the 150 plus references to hope, I found this wisdom:
Wealth from get-rich-quick schemes quickly disappears; wealth from hard work grows over time. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:11-12 (NLT)
I'm making 2018 a year of action. I've learned that hope requires action and hard work. My dreams that became reality this past year are engaging and invigorating. I'm looking for more of that in 2018, but God won't provide the outcomes until I put in the work to make it happen. How about you? Are you willing to join me? Let me know how you plan to make 2018 your year of action.
