Furious

2010

-Ten year high school reunion.

-Turning 28. That’s drawing steadily closer to 30.

-Not 2009.

-Fresh slate: lots of things in the works… some coming soon… and some coming not so soon. Suffice it to say that the list of goals and dreams for this year are long. It’s January 7^th and I’ve already crossed two items off my list.

Goal #1: I started reading Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead” over Thanksgiving break. I returned from Mexico 520 pages into the 762 paged book. I couldn’t bring myself to read it during the crazy month of parties and work. I brought it with me back to Texas but didn’t want to steal myself away from friends and family to spend time with Howard Roarke. Determined to complete the book at the start of the year I began reading it on the flight home on the 31^st. I finally finished that sucker on January 2^nd. Turns out it’s not even on the recommended 100 books before you die list from BBC. Dang it.

Goal #2: I save receipts. I claim that it’s to make sure they go through my checking account correctly. I keep them just in case I need to return something. But the truth is… I had receipts from Chipotle dating back to February. Was I really going to take back my burrito? I stored all of those receipts in a large drawer in a dresser. There were hundreds of them. I went through them all and threw all but 15 of them away. It feels amazing.

Other 2010/28 year-old goals: Run 2 races (1 of them being a ½ marathon). Read “Mere Christianity.” Create and hold to a financial budget that includes saving and giving. Travel out of the country. Write a manuscript for the book that’s been rolling around my head for 8 years.

Just a few… there are some more that are going to stay close to heart for safe keeping. But more than any hope I have for the year, I am waiting in expectation for all that the Lord has in store. For “many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails.” (Proverbs 19:21) I trade in my lists for whatever he purposes this year!

Closing with some thoughts from my current read, “The Furious Longing of God” by Brennan Manning:

The furious longing of God is beyond our wildest desires, our hope or hopelessness, our rectitude or wickedness, neither cornered by sweet talk nor gentle persuasion. The furious longing of God, as Dan Berrigan writes, is “not to be reduced to a thing, a grand ideal; it is not to be reduced to a plaything, a caged songbird, for the amusement of children.” It cannot be tamed, boxed, captivated, housebroken, or templebroken. It is simply and startingly Jesus, the effulgence of the Father’s love.

"I AM MY BELOVED’S, AND HIS DESIRE IS FOR ME." Song of Solomon 7:10

It’s going to be a furious year.