Name the Win

The first day of 2012 presented me with a challenge: to name what it means to win.  “Name the win,” Pastor Tim said this morning.  Name what it means to succeed.  Call it out. Look it straight in the eye.  Go after it.  

Not long ago, hunting season provided him an opportunity to practice.  Was winning a matter of conquering a coveted 10-point buck, or was it enjoying the beauty of the outdoors and the sheer majesty of God’s creation while tromping through the woods with rifle in hand?  He pointed out that we were also collectively at a point of decision.  How will we win as a congregation in 2012?  What will it look like to worship, grow, connect, serve and (he emphasized this last point) WITNESS together?

Much of the afternoon I mulled this over in a personal sense.  NAME THE WIN.  Is winning during the holiday season a matter of decorating the house and then lavishing gifts and grand outlays of food on family, or relishing and encouraging the unity and closeness within that family?  In general, is it living out a well-rehearsed, carefully protected, self-defined lifestyle and chugging through life like a predictable Mississippi steamboat, or being vulnerable and willing to stray into wild, uncharted waters in a kayak - cultivating a willingness to go and do whatever the Holy Spirit wills?

I like this approach to the New Year.  Rather than focusing on resolutions, which always (and I mean ALWAYS) fail to elicit lasting positive change, I’m inspired by the challenge to define what it will mean to win in 2012.  This requires evaluation (of the past) introspection (in the present), and vision (for the future).

This seems a good time to insert a gem from Helen Keller: “The greatest tragedy to befall a person is to have sight but lack vision.” Such good counsel!

Pastor Tim’s voice continues to echo in my mind.  NAME THE WIN. What does this mean to me today, as I toss out the old scribbled-and-dog-eared 2011 calendar?  As I hang new, clean pages with so many long, empty rows of squares representing the days of 2012? I think it means be content with less (fewer possessions, released control) and be content with more (greater sacrifice, increased provision). 

Embrace hope and resist discouragement.  Accept what comes and expect to be changed by it. Choose every day to support my own health and well-being. Be available to other people; get under their skin with them to the degree they would like, and encourage them there. Express my unique talents and gifts freely, without embarrassment.  Cultivate patience. Dare to risk. Act now; don’t waste time. Banish idols – thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, and things that have attained prominence but don’t belong. Worship God as true God, not some man-made figure that suits my description.  View all of life through a lens of grace and mercy – an eternal (enlarging, clarifying, transforming) lens that puts perspective on the relatively small issues of life and spotlights what really matters.

But all of that seems daunting in scope, and almost overwhelming. I like the closing words of an Orthodox morning prayer: “Guide my will and teach me to pray, to believe, to hope, to suffer, to forgive, and to love.”  As a disciple of Christ who wants to learn to do these things well, I will hopefully change and grow in that direction.  And as I change and grow, I will win.  That is my vision for 2012.

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.  The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.  Isaiah 43:18-21