March Resolutions

I’ve never really been the “New Year’s Resolution” type. Maybe a new year just isn’t enough motivation for me to keep a resolution, or maybe I just never bought into the whole thing. On that note, I’m making a March resolution—it could have been a February one if I had realized sooner that I need to make a change. I want to be present with people. One of my cousins is a pastor in Texas & he writes a blog called The Empty Pulpit. In a recent blog entry entitled “Jesus Didn’t Die on the Cross so You Could Go to Another Meeting”, he discussed how so many meetings he has attended throughout his ministry could have taken much less time. At the end of his blog he wrote this:

               

“I shared a wonderful meal this morning with a member of my church. After about an hour he asked, ‘When do you have to be at the office?’ I told him, ‘There is nothing at the office more important than this conversation.’

“That’s all I have to say about that.”

That last bit hit me…hard. It got me to thinking about the many times that I’ve been with a person (or group of people) & haven’t truly been there. Sometimes I am texting & sometimes my mind is thinking about what I am going to eat for lunch (mmmmm…pasta!). Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with texting or considering my meal plans, but when it prevents me from fully engaging with the person who is trying to make use of my presence then I am basically telling that person they are not important.

Last night I was having dinner with two amazing people that I care very much for, but the entire time I kept checking my phone & conversing with other people. I realized halfway through the meal that I was being a total butthole & that these important people deserved my full engagement. Sometimes we need to put the phone away or turn off the outside thoughts & just enjoy the people we are with.

All of that being said, while I was in Dallas for the worship conference last week, the Holy Spirit renewed my sense of direction & my calling. One of the things He made very clear to me is that I need to set apart Wednesdays to spend time in His presence. As a woman I am so easily distracted. I constantly have fifty things rolling around in my head & so many times I will realize in the midst of a project that I did not finish the project I had just been working on. My goal is to free myself from distractions & be fully present in whatever situation I am in—to put my cell phone & iPod away long enough to notice all of the things I consistently overlook.

I will no longer be available on Wednesdays; they are now dedicated to drawing near to my Lord. I am unsatisfied with remaining where I am at—I want to continually seek His presence & move closer to Him.