How are you constructing your new year in 2008? 

Think about this: In Construction, it would be absurd to lay the upper layers of a brick wall without first laying the bottom ones that will support the top…

While many people are talking about their New Year Resolutions for 2008, a friend stated that his focus would be on finishing the plans that had slipped through in 2007.  This simple remark carried heavy wisdom. 

How often do we focus on making new plans without first finishing old plans? How can we ever hope to truly go on to new heights without first building the foundations beneath?

Scripture lets us know that when it comes to building our faith, we have to do it “line by line and precept by precept.”  This is true for the rest of life.  There are no magic formulas for skipping to the end without going through the beginning and middle.

So what “old plans” have we left undone in 2007?

I can’t speak about the specifics of your life because I don’t know them.  However, I can share about my own, knowing that what I face and you face are in some ways similar.  Personally, I have a tendency to start things without taking them to completion, like my first novel and piano lessons.  When things get difficult - that’s the time to drop them.  This is a bad habit which ultimately causes me discomfort - both robbing me and others from a unique experience.  But, as life goes on, I’ve begun to further realize just how closely my future is predicated upon my past.  What I do today does truly affect the outcome of tomorrow.  So I battle to complete the tasks that come to me in order to further prepare for my future.  No more running when things get tough.  It’s time to finish the novel.  It’s time to stick with piano lessons.  It’s time to do a lot of things… 

What about you? 

What plans did you leave undone from last year?  Whether it’s reading a new book or writing one; eating healthy or beginning an exercise routine; building a strong family support system or pursuing higher education - whatever you’ve started in 2007 that needs to be finished - (something that brings life to you instead of stealing it from you) - let 2008 be your year to complete past and present plans!  Once you’ve done this, then move on to construct new avenues.  And think about this: new avenues naturally spring forth from finished works.

Examine all aspects of your life! 

Determine what needs further building, plan the steps that must be taken and get to work.  This way, when opportunity comes knocking you’ll not only open the door - you’ll be ready and prepared to walk through to the other side.  Unfortunately, the world is full of a majority of people who have a long list of unfinished works and unfulfilled dreams.  I don’t want you to get to the end of your life, only to find your name was added to that list.  What a terrible feeling it is to know a task was yours to do and you never completed it.

I like the line from the movie, The Great Debaters.  When the question is raised, “What do we do here?”  The answer is given, “We do what we have to do, so we can do what we want to do.”

God is calling us to do some things.  Some of them we’ve already started.  Others, we need to begin.  A few, we’ve completed.  But as long as we have incompletes, we will never fully make it to a higher level and receive the next great task. 

May we construct our new year well… and take it one piece at a time.  Destiny is waiting on us.  Time to get to work.

Let me know what you think.

Allen Paul Weaver III

“He who is faithful in the little things will be faithful with real responsibility.”