February's Focus

It’s a new month; therefore, it’s time to tackle another “resolution” on my list from my first post this year regarding all of the areas of improvement I sought last year and continue to seek this year. Last month I focused on being God-centered in all that I do.

The results of last month are, well . . . not necessarily tangible. But that tends to happen with non-measurable spiritual goals regarding one’s thoughts. Here’s what I do know: I worked harder to stay connected with God. I forced myself to read more, even if it was in little chunks. I began to take notes again. I listened to sermons and hymns when I had travel time. I read a blog last week by Donald Miller in which he wrote that the key with goals isn’t the lofty end; instead, it’s the daily work you can say you will do in pursuit of that end. Commit to the work, not the goals. I did daily work. I can say that.

This month I’ve decided to target a combination of two from the list that seem very closely connected:

• Have the “peace that passeth understanding.”
• Exhibit great joy and faith and self-control, especially in times of adversity.

I’m targeting these for a couple of reasons. One of the reasons is because it’s the last month of basketball season, and I need to learn to shut up at times during games. My job as the assistant is to calmly, coolly advise. It is not to get upset. This is hard. Passion is one of the reasons I got into coaching, and I believe my passion made me into a pretty good coach. I can’t lose passion; but I’ve got to reign in the anger, the frustration. They aren’t helping, and they aren’t part of my job description.

A second reason is that I’m tired right now. It’s a tough stretch, coaching, teaching, parenting, and doing grad work. The schedule, especially with a blitz of Saturday games, has squashed mental health time. I’m cranky. I’m easily agitated right now. I need to stop complaining. One of the classes I teach just got done reading an article from MSNBC calling the U.S. a “nation of whiners.” Christians are called to be different. I can’t be a whiner.

For last month it was easy to point to the daily action that I would do to work towards that area of improvement. It’s tougher with this one. One thing I plan on doing is trying to keep a list of events that spark a fierce reaction from me, that cause me to display a lack of peace. I’m open to other suggestions from my readers about daily steps forward for this.

I also will follow John Piper’s advice from a recent blog post: in order to protect my happiness (both from successes and from suffering), I must focus on one fact: "Great is your reward in heaven." If I can see that big picture in the day to day grind, I should be much more successful in maintaining peace and joy.