One of the best things about being human beings is the ability to separate the past from the present and future. I say that because if we were locked into constantly rehearsing the failures of yesterday, last week, last month–you get the idea–we would never be able to move forward. In one of my favorite Bible passages Jeremiah reminds us that God’s grace is fresh every morning. Every day is a new beginning when we let God’s grace prevail in our lives. Jeremiah knew that and he lived long before Jesus came to the earth to demonstrate the fullness of God’s grace on our behalf by living a perfect life and then dying a sacrificial death in our places on the cross.
I bring that up today, because we’re in a season of new beginnings here in America. While the New Year is celebrated in January, and is often a time when people “turn over a new leaf,” make resolutions to initiate new beginnings, and to improve themselves, September is another time when many Americans launch new beginnings. For many that’s because September launches a new school year. Families get back to some semblance of routine after the summer when vacations and other activities break up those routines. That makes September is a great time to launch new beginnings.
As a leader, what are some new beginnings you need to initiate? Do you need to revise or totally rework your daily routine? Have you been intending to work out, or invest more time alone with God, or read more, or ______? What is it that will make you more effective as a person, a spouse, parent or child, and as a leader? When was the last time you sat down and asked yourself those questions. At New Life we just launched a new series titled “Engage!” The purpose of the series is to help us engage our lives in focused intentional ways, so they will make a greater difference. Is you living life fully engaged right now? Do you know what that means for you?
That last paragraph raises many questions, but as we remind ourselves time and time again: the unexamined life is not worth living. Questions are a key means of examining our lives. If we don’t like the answers, we need to initiate some new beginnings. If we do like the answers, we’ll need to receive that fresh grace every morning and move forward into the future with consistency and diligence.
I am in a time of launching new beginnings that started a couple of weeks before I left for Cambodia. As I started to plan the fall, I realized that I had drifted back into some habits that weren’t helping me engage my life fully. Some were simple physical habits such as drinking too much caffeine, not eating well overall, and not getting enough exercise. I cycle in and out of self-leadership in these areas, and realized I had been in an out cycle for several months. Eliminating caffeine from my diet again has helped me jumpstart the fall of new beginnings in the physical arena of life. Although every time I have done so, doesn’t feel like a “jumpstart” for a few weeks.
Now, I’m addressing my alone time with God at the start of each day, and the way I approach reading and studying Scripture, as well as reading leadership books from the business and Christian arenas. The “Quadrant II” activities are never easy to give their proper priority since the rest of the quadrants scream, while Quadrant II waits quietly and patiently for us to address it. Life management is always a challenge for me, and if it is for you, new beginnings are probably a regular part of your life, or need to be.
Why not take ten minutes right now and ask yourself this simple question: What new beginnings do I need to initiate this month in order to be more effective as a leader? Take the time to really reflect on the question. Take some notes. If it turns into more than ten minutes great. If you’re already in the groove with your plan for approaching life effectively, wonderful! Remember every day is a new beginning, and God offers fresh grace to go with each one, so living life fully engaged is an opportunity we can all experience daily.
Here’s to leading better by considering which new beginnings will move us toward full engagement in our lives and then putting them into practice–today!