How Bad Do You Want It?

By JoAnn Fore 

The arrival of 2009 caught me in a reflective mode. Turn-of-the-year and birthday celebrations do that for me.

Unfortunately, reflecting on this past year I got a little hung up on some things I didn't accomplish. I camped out with my discontent a couple days. But, the warmth of Sovereign acceptance seeped over me to lift the groping fog of failure.

A 17th Century French monk penetrated the mist. I learned when Brother Lawrence, an uncomplicated man who entered a Paris monastery at mid-life, failed at anything he simply confessed to God, "I shall never do otherwise, if You leave me to myself."

It's true. Short of God's graceful intervention, my failures would forever outweigh my successes.

Now, comfortably nestled into the coming year, I'm feeling a bit Alice in Wonderland-esque: "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"

I need wisdom.

My proverbial cat, from Lewis Carroll's whimsical story, steps in about now and speaks up. "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to."

Where do I want to get to this year? And, what am I going to have to do to get there?

Ruth Haley Barton, in her book Sacred Rhythms, helps me contemplate the answer. She presents two simple questions: "Who do I want to be?" and "How do I want to live?". Barton suggests we ask ourselves, "How do I want to live so that I can be who I want to be?"

Then, she cinches it with a question it all boils down to: "How bad do I want it?"

How bad do I want it?

My goal for 2009 is to live intentional. To arrange my life in an intentional manner, based on the person I want to be –the person God made me to be. And, with God's graceful intervention, may the next turn of the year materialize in rays of warm sunlight.

Reflection: Are you arranging your life around the person you want to become?

Jo Ann Fore is a Certified Life Purpose Coach®, who helps women move forward toward their purpose in life.  Visit Jo Ann at www.JoAnnFore.com or email at joannfore@msn.com.
Ruth Haley Barton, 2006, Sacred Rhythms: Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation, InterVarsity Press

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