My December 27th Tradition

It's a new year and each new year brings on a practice that is totally foreign to a slacker-esque and non-type-A person like myself.Goal setting.

Every year around December 27th I start thinking about the upcoming 365-day period and wondering: What's going to happen in the next year and what kind of things can I plan to do and then foolishly ignore, only to read over them next December 27th and wonder exactly what I was thinking? 

That may be a tad more than my actual thought process, but not too much more.

Getting back into blogging has actually been quite difficult (as you can see, no posts since 1/4) for that very reason.

I've been forced to think about what I REALLY care about and what I REALLY want out of the coming year.

I've been forced to think about what God may want from me in the next calendar year. Who should I be and how do I open myself up to His grace in pursuit of that person?

I created a list of goals on Evernote and haven't looked at it since. I can see the icon on this very screen, I know the list I made and what it means for this coming year. And as I think about it I ponder this one thought:

Will the Kingdom of God be beautified or defaced by my plans, actions, writings, dreaming, loving, living, hoping and teaching this year?

If not, my piddly weight loss and personal organization goals are useless.

How will the Kingdom of God look after you're done with 2012?