Renew 2019

It is still January and I decided I would RE-do and RE-post my first blog from 2015.  The beginning of a new year seems like a fitting time to revisit, repost, rewrite, renew and all those other “RE” words out there. That little prefix “RE” is fascinating to me.  According to the dictionary, it occurs originally in loanwords from Latin, used with the meaning “again” and “again” to indicate repetition.   I love all the “RE” words like; re-do, re-claim, re-purpose, re-new, re-visit, re-organize, re-furbish, re-live, re-store, re-generate,  re-deem, re-pent, re-call and re-write… I could go on and on but I think you can see where I’m heading.

The whole concept of a redo is freeing.  It is letting go of past mistakes.  Releasing the burdens we carried around far too long… then feeling our souls being restored to live again.  It sometimes means revisiting the last place we got stuck in order to rediscover the joy that used to be so readily available.

I am a self-confessed obsessive-compulsive list maker.  My daughter laughs at me and thinks it’s a waste of time when I carefully write a list of things to do, only to rewrite it neater, clearer, with a better pen and a more functional notebook…it had to be reworked because the first draft was thoughtless, not thematic, somehow it seemed prosaic.  For me, it is in the re-write where I find clarity and inspiration.

This year is going to be a great year!  We all start out the year claiming that to be true by faith, don’t we? I don’t know what God has planned but I know I am in place to receive it.   In the meantime, it is my goal to write something every day (maybe 5 times a week realistically). I want to push forward in becoming the best writer I can be.  I’ve put it off for so many years…we were so young and busy pastoring…our kids were so little, then they were in-between, then they were busy and big… well, then they were gone…

That was the wake-up call!  No more excuses!  I have been in a bit of a wilderness experience for a few years now With my health… but I can clearly see it is a brand new day. I know God is faithful to…“restore the years the locust has eaten.”(Joel 2:25)  I plan on using this year to rework myself… I hit a big decade change on my birthday and that is never easy- unless you hit 10 or 20…but never again is anyone ever happy to see the decade roll over.

So let the rework begin!  I am ready to reinvent myself in 2019.  This is my journey.  I invite you to join me and see where it takes us.  I love my life and remain grateful for all God’s grace and mercy in my journey these years.

Let’s Re-deem the time!

 “Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk, not as unwise but as wise. redeeming the time, because the days are evil.…” Ephesians 5:15-16 

Just Jesus,

Sheri