New Year ... Boldness!

Happy New Year, everyone! I feel like I can still say this even though January is already under our belts, because it’s the first post of 2020 here on Contagious Courage. How is 2020 going so far? Does anyone do New Year’s resolutions? What about a word of the year? Personally, I do a “dreaming, planning, goal setting session” sometime in January, and then I work off of that for what I want the year to look like (inasmuch as I’m actually able to control that, at least!).

This “session” is actually something that Brierly and I have been doing for 3 years now. And it is actually a combination of 2 different things we value: Marriage and Reflecting & Planning. (Okay maybe those are 3 things, but I’m bunching the reflecting and planning together!)

This event came about because our marriage mentors in Michigan encouraged us to do an annual retreat where we focus on dreams and plans and lining ourselves up with each other and with what God is saying to us at that time. (And they’re a great couple, so we try and do what they tell us to do!)

From our friend's farm, we drove to Aberfoyle Lodge, where we had tea during our retreat in the Eastern Highlands

Our retreat can happen anywhere, the aim is to simply have 24-36 hours to focus on our lives and praising and listening to God. We’ve had the retreat at a friend’s grandparent’s A-frame cabin in northern Michigan, one year it was at a nice rhino sanctuary lodge an hour away from Harare, and a couple weeks ago it was at our friend’s farm in the eastern highlands of Zimbabwe. The point is, we can make our annual retreat as budget-friendly or as special and a treat as we’d like. As long as we are in a different physical space, it allows our mental space to be free to do some dreaming!

The second way that this annual retreat came into form is from our Passion Planners. (No, I do not have any sponsors/commission/paid content on this blog… dare I say “yet”, but I sure should!) We each buy a new Passion Planner for the year, and it guides us through brainstorming, prioritizing, and setting reachable goals. We like the format and the check-ins, and the monthly reflections, so we are happy customers and will keep using them for the foreseeable future. So, on the first night of our retreat, we spend that time looking back on the previous year, seeing if we accomplished what we had hoped, how our focus might have changed mid-year, and listing what we learned that year and as well as things and people we were thankful for.

Then the second day of the retreat involves cracking open crisp new planners that lead you off with “Set a timer for 5 minutes. Imagine that whatever you write on this piece of paper will come true within the designated time frame. Think of it as a wishlist describing your ideal life. Ask yourself, ‘If I could be anything, do anything, or have anything, what would it be?’ Lastly, do not feel the need to be realistic or justify your dreams. Just write.” There are four boxes on the page, titled “3 months, 1 year, 3 years, and lifetime,” And you just start scribbling away! From there, the planner helps you select which things to focus on first, and how to put your steps in place to make sure you’re progressing in the areas you chose.

Maybe it sounds a bit like a self-help thing, or the wording of the prompt seems a bit materialistic upon the first read. But since Brierly and I approach the session with a Christian worldview, we surround the weekend in praise, worship, and prayer, and we know that we desire to please God with our lives, we simply use the prompt as a launching pad for the creativity that God wants to lead and spark in our lives.

I do have to admit that I catch myself wanting to be “realistic” with my dreams or only writing down goals that I know I can safely achieve with only a moderate amount of self-discipline and time management. But then I shoot up a prayer and declare that these goals are as much about my faith journey with God as they are based on my own capabilities.

Whether the goals seem to be ones I can “do by myself,” like:

-read 2 books a month,

-plant fruit and shade trees around our staff house that is to be built,

-get back up to 10,000 steps a day on my Fitbit (from my current 7,000), or

-engage the female apprentices at Ebenezer on a deeper level,

Or they’re goals that “only God can get that done,” like;

-to see all the natural wonders of the world before I die,

-go to Israel this year, or

-pay off multiple $10,000's of student loans in the next 3 years, (not sure I should disclose exactly how much we still owe for our Bachelor's at Calvin and Master's at University of Nebraska!!)

I think it’s dangerous to put goals and dreams into categories like those. Because really, I could figure out ways to make those outrageous goals happen by my own doing. And equally, I need major help to accomplish the smaller goals. So it’s not that some are too small for God or too big for me, or vice versa.

Rather, when I dream of what I hope to accomplish, I am declaring that I need God to help me with all the goals! Let me say again, there is nothing too big or too small for God. I think we hear that all the time, but do we believe it? Do we live like it’s true? It’s merely up to me and whether I have faith that He can do it. So, if my desires are aligned with Him, why should I doubt? Why should I be afraid? God’s the one with the infinite power, infinite bank account, and infinite love for me, a daughter in Christ. I can put timelines on my goals, but they will happen on God’s time, which is never “on my time,” but it’s never late either.

And do you know what else? I think another aspect of having faith and taking courage is choosing to not be afraid of sharing these goals with other people. With you. Yes, all of those goals a few paragraphs up are real goals I wrote down! I decided to write some of those goals down, knowing perfectly well that I am 100% incapable of accomplishing them. But either my desire for them is strong (travel!) or they simply have to be done (ah hem, student loans!), so I decided to pray for bold timelines. I’m refusing to worry, I’m choosing to pray and have courage. Miracles still happen.

Sometimes, it’s all we can handle to vocalize to God what our goals are, and that is bold enough. And yet, while that’s good, we miss out on an opportunity to bear witness to God’s goodness when the prayers are answered and goals are reached, because people didn’t see the whole story. We need to share in our struggles so that our wins have more meaning to our brothers and sisters in the faith. God gets the glory when we share our testimonies, and that includes little steps as well as major breakthroughs. Why shouldn’t we let out a “Hallelujah!” when we reach our new exercise goal? To God be the glory! And then there can be an even louder drowning of Hallelujah’s when we are debt free! Am I right?

So, I’ve shared how Brierly and I conduct our annual retreat. We reflect and share gratitude for the prior year, and we dream and set goals for the coming year. We praise God and spend time in prayer, listening if there’s a word or a direction we need to heed. Last year (January 2019) we heard very clearly that we needed to commit to being in Zimbabwe for 2019, which ended up being an important thing to be clear on, since a couple weeks later we were asked to leave the farm we moved to Zimbabwe to manage. Had we not heard from God to stay in Zim, we may have ended up in Uganda, or maybe even the basement in Middleville! But it was only after committing to 2019 in Zimbabwe that we met certain people, learned of a new opportunity, and found ourselves way down in Matebeleland and at Ebenezer Agricultural Training Centre.

God knew what was ahead, and we didn’t. But we took the time to listen in the beginning of the year, and He guided us through all 12 months of 2019. And while we didn’t hear a clear word like last year, we feel our goals are blessed and that now is the time to have faith that God is moving.

One last thought. Some of you may be thinking about how I said to share goals and dreams out loud, with others. And you may be hesitant, wondering about how it doesn’t look so good if we share a goal and then, for whatever reason, it doesn’t happen. Then there’s all the letdown, everyone asking you “what happened?” and maybe even you’ll get some judgement or pity. Well, first of all, I think it has to do with how you present your goals in the first place. Are you sharing that it’s something you’re praying for? That you’re hoping for it? That you’d love to do XYZ? Or is it coming from a place where pride and self-image may be influencing the presentation for goals? If you’re open, honest, and humble about what you’d like to accomplish, and it ends up not happening, failure is okay. We learn from failure, we find out that there is a better time to focus on that certain thing, or we realize that there was something even more amazing planned for us. I’m thinking, if you’re going to be bold enough and courageous enough to share your goals out loud, be bold enough to be able to say, mid-journey when you can’t see how it all plays out, that God’s in control and He’s got a great plan for you. Be willing to testify in the beginning, middle, and end of your different seasons. Be strong and  courageous!

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For those of you that made it this far, I’m going to take a moment to say Happy Birthday to my daughter Charlotte! She had her first birthday last week. So I figured some of my readers may enjoy a few updated photos! I’m loving life with a busy not-yet-walking one year old, and seeing how her personality grows right along with her. Thank you all for your prayers and support!

Growing in Courage,

Mackenzie

PS- I'd like to make a shout out to my friend Chrissy L. for her editing and revising skills on this post. Thank you for pre-reading and improving the content! I did tweak it again after she worked on it, so any errors are still mine. :)