It’s a New Year and so now’s a good time to break some bad habits and embrace change. It’s also been more than a week since 2013 began and I’m still “tweaking” my resolution.  I might have a problem with procrastination.

I also think there is so much “noise” with the pace in which we live that there’s hardly any time to make a plan, much less actually finish it. The first rule of plan making is to know your current state. Not only am I a procrastinator, I’m really good at story telling – particularly about my current state. So I have a Truth teller in my life to give me perspective.  His name is Jesus.

O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down, you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in – behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, to lofty for me to attain.

Psalm 139:1-5

Today’s journal pages are hemmed as a physical reminder to me of the work God wants to finish in me. He knows every part of me and the boundaries that He has set behind me and before me are there to protect and to guide. When I attempt to travel this life according to my own rules, I wind up with a lot of frayed relationships turned inside out.

This Psalm contains 24 verses that describe an unmasking of self. Those parts of us that we keep hidden, even from ourselves, are brought to light. This process reveals habit patterns and raw edges — our uncut version, remnant material.  Then by the grace of God, Christ stitches together something beautiful, altering the shape and purpose for my life, creating a custom fit with pressed edges and a clean finish.

So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer by works, if it were, grace would no longer be grace.

Romans 11:5-6

Life’s tempo may be so frenetic that you haven’t taken a moment in 2013 to reflect on all the ways about you that are precious and uniquely you. I’m still planning to make a few changes. I hope it involves a kinder spirit, a slower pace, mending some broken things, and spending more time with my Lord and Tailor as He fashions something new in me that looks a lot like Him.