It’s quiet and dark.
The early morning of a new year is so much different from the first few minutes after the ball drops. No noisemakers. No fireworks. Just a world asleep, waiting to wake up to the wonder and the promise of a new start.
It won’t be long before the sun begins to rise, and with it, millions of authors who will begin to write page 1 of this brand new 365-page book we’ll all call “2015.” Gyms will be joined, resolutions will be made, diets will be started.
A week or so from now, most of them will be forgotten, broken and failed, UNLESS you change one simple word.
This year, don’t just believe for something; believe toward something.
[Tweet “This year, don’t just believe for something; believe toward something.”]Yes, hope springs eternal, but the problem with hope is that so many of us see it as passive instead of active. We’re sitting in a car hoping to go somewhere else but never turning the key and pushing the gas.
Resolutions require execution.
[Tweet “Resolutions require execution.”]So many of us quit trying because we’ve bought into the lie that the only scoreboard that matters is results. But what matters is the journey, and even more specifically, who you’re on the journey with and why, and once we get that right, we’ll find that what we’re believing for turns into what we’re believing towards.
There is an interesting chapter in the Bible that is often called the “Hall of Faith” because it includes so many men and women throughout history who trusted God in great ways. In ways that you and I dream of trusting God. It’s found in Hebrews 11, and the most curious verse in that chapter of amazing believers is verse 13:
All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. (New Living Translation)
Did you catch that? If this was just about results, then every one of them failed. They all joined the gym and quit before Valentines. Every one of them set out to read the Bible in a year and never got past Genesis. But what set them apart as examples of success and faith is one simple word:
They weren’t passively believing for something. They were actively believing toward something.
When you and I do that, we’ll find that this time next year, we’ll be further down the road than we are right now. We’ll find that instead of quitting because we didn’t meet a goal or an expectation, we’re better because we just kept moving toward the goals that we’re pursuing.
So pick a destination, and then crank up the car and go. You may not make it by the end of this year, or the next, or ever. But like those faithful men and women whose portraits hang in the Hall of Faith, you’ll be better because you’ve chosen to see better. They died still believing the promise because they “saw it all from a distance” and kept moving towards it, and movement is ALWAYS the first step to improvement.
[Tweet “Movement is the first step to improvement.”]
