This is the first time in twenty-six years that August has not been
“back to school” time for me. Typically,
August was filled with back to school shopping and “school year resolutions”: This
year, I’m going to be organized. This
year, I’m going to stay on top of my homework (or, when I became a teacher, my
grading). This year is going to be
different, and it’s going to be better, and I’m going to get so much more done.
Now that I am out of school, both as a student and as a
teacher, I am finding myself missing this time of starting fresh and beginning
new things. I feel like I’ve finally “graduated”
to becoming an “adult” with bigger responsibilities, even though I had them as a
teacher as well. Now, though, they’re
year-round.
I realize it doesn’t have to be this way necessarily. Any time can be a time of renewal. Often, if one looks for advice on goal
setting, what one finds is simple. Add
new habits and goals gradually. Set a
time-range for meeting your goal. Is it a
long-term goal? Allow more time to
achieve it. Set smaller goals to help
reach the bigger ones.
At this point in my life, leaving the world of education, I
feel like I've lost the sense of schedule that the cycle of school-summer-school
gave me, but that’s not a bad thing. Now
I can truly embrace the idea of starting anew at any time.
I think the same can be said for spiritual renewal. Often, we look to the “big” seasons in the
Church year, such as Advent, Christmas, Lent, or Easter as the times to
reconnect with our faith, but we can do so at any time. God is always waiting for us. We just have to be ready and willing to meet
Him.
What could you do to start a time of spiritual renewal right
now?
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