By Brenda Jank
This past week, someone “double-dog” dared me. It made me laugh out loud and brought back childhood memories.
Can I double-dog dare you as we approach the threshold of a New Year? Like last year, Covid-19 will nip at our heels and take a chunk out of our hearts. Crisis will rear its ugly head. Nagging discontentment may throw us off center at inopportune times. But as God’s people, this is not the end of the story. This is the fuel for some of His best work – if we are well attuned – to all He wants to do in us and through us.
3 Tools that will equip us to take the offense in 2022.
- The Courage to be Quiet
- The Courage to ask Questions
- The Courage to Connect
The Courage to be Quiet
Take 5. Take 10. Take time for a Deep Quiet – a turning of our entire attention to God – heart, soul, mind, strength, and will.
Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has been good to you. Psalm 116:7
In this place of quiet and deep knowing, we disengage from auto-pilot and settle into a space where our hearts are better suited to find in Him what we most need.
Be still and know.
The Courage to ask Questions
Good questions. Hard questions. Questions that give us pause and make us squirm.
- Ask God, “What am I missing?”
- Ask yourself. “Am I ready?” To heal. Make a difference. Disrupt the status quo. Break the chains that bind me. Learn to love and hope again.
- Ask others good questions. Move into overdrive. Talk to strangers. Ask cashiers how their day is going. Look into their eyes and listen. Call friends. Ask someone you love, “When was the last time I told you how much you mean to me?”
The Courage to Connect
Get out of your comfort zone. Be the change. Lead the charge.
The world is dying of loneliness.
Don’t let a week go by, ever, that you are not setting the stage for the meaningful connection with someone on the fringe. We know them. We see them. We typically forget them. This mission: authentic, genuine love. It can’t be a duty, or a check list. Let love lead the way.
If you know your track record and fear a dragging of your feet, ask God to reveal the WHY of your resistance. Is it fear? Busyness? Unfamiliar territory? Complacency? Forgetfulness? Let Him have His way with your heart. As God’s beloved, we are charged and empowered to go. May this honor be our greatest New Year joy.
New Year. Same God.
… “O man greatly loved, fear not, peace be with you; be strong and of good courage.” And as he spoke to me, I was strengthened … Daniel 10:19
Jesus said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” Matthew 14:27
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