happy new year!!
i'm sorry, i'm a few posts behind in starting the new year... but nevertheless, let's start here... in biding farewell to a full and joyous 2011, here's to the most fruitful and best year in the last 23 years of my life!
today, i got the chance to spend some time reflecting on my 2011 goals and the progress i made on it. i don't like to call them resolutions, because nothing in life is ever absolutely resolute. "resolving" to do something doesn't mean it will happen as intended (actually, rarely does it ever), and even after the results are "achieved" there is always room for more growth. so goals it is.
after i wrote this list last year, i stowed them away in the most private of places, keeping them to myself for various personal reasons. but now that the year is over, i feel comfortable sharing about God's faithfulness throughout the past year. (i myself was even shocked at how many actually came true...)
as usual, i forgot about my new year's "goals" somewhere by the month of march... just like how impossible it is to find an open treadmill at the gym on january 1st but by the time march rolls around it's deserted. i guess what's interesting though is the goals that were "meant to be achieved" didn't happen because i wanted them to, but because God did. some of the things on my list came up in prayer later on organically, and the ones that weren't God-given, i didn't give another thought to after i wrote it down. and now going back through this list a year later, i can see that i've achieved a lot of my 2011 goals, down to the very last detail in the way i prayed for... all by God's grace, and only by God's grace.
ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
-- matthew 7:7 --
i'm sorry, i'm a few posts behind in starting the new year... but nevertheless, let's start here... in biding farewell to a full and joyous 2011, here's to the most fruitful and best year in the last 23 years of my life!
today, i got the chance to spend some time reflecting on my 2011 goals and the progress i made on it. i don't like to call them resolutions, because nothing in life is ever absolutely resolute. "resolving" to do something doesn't mean it will happen as intended (actually, rarely does it ever), and even after the results are "achieved" there is always room for more growth. so goals it is.
after i wrote this list last year, i stowed them away in the most private of places, keeping them to myself for various personal reasons. but now that the year is over, i feel comfortable sharing about God's faithfulness throughout the past year. (i myself was even shocked at how many actually came true...)
as usual, i forgot about my new year's "goals" somewhere by the month of march... just like how impossible it is to find an open treadmill at the gym on january 1st but by the time march rolls around it's deserted. i guess what's interesting though is the goals that were "meant to be achieved" didn't happen because i wanted them to, but because God did. some of the things on my list came up in prayer later on organically, and the ones that weren't God-given, i didn't give another thought to after i wrote it down. and now going back through this list a year later, i can see that i've achieved a lot of my 2011 goals, down to the very last detail in the way i prayed for... all by God's grace, and only by God's grace.
ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
-- matthew 7:7 --
CAREER / FUTURE
PERSONAL
SPIRITUALLY
- Quit current job-- no FT for-profit jobs (for this year at least)... either PT corporate or FT nonprofit / government (maybe at Hope Clinic / Alterum??) i cant believe that i'm actually working at Hope Clinic now. in fact, when i was looking for new jobs last May, i had actually forgotten about this specific goal and even more that i had offhandedly scribbled down Hope Clinic in the margins of my journal. whoa, God totally answered this prayer and opened this door though. i think i always knew that i wanted to be involved at Hope somehow, but never realized that what i had been dreaming and praying about this far in advance (and not even taking it that seriously) would actually happen. my current job at Hope Clinic came about in a very unexpected way (i didn't even proactively seek it out!), but God is definitely opening the doors to my future and my visions... wow!
- Look into drafting a business plan for my pilates studio -- hmm, this did not happen, but it looks like this is very clearly not the path that God wants me to go down right now, and i could not agree more. it makes total sense. (more on this to come in future posts...)
- Pick up more violin / piano students -- in 2011, i picked up 2 new students (Bruno & Hannah... below is Bruno and his 2 year-old younger sister mimicking him)
PERSONAL
- No complaining: i've gotten a lot better at this. but still not perfect... sometimes you just need to vent, yanno? but i can say that i've cut out a lot of the unnecessary audiences and whining.
- Take the GREs: check.
- Run a full marathon and a half marathon: ooops. some other things came in the way of this plan and me being able to train faithfully (i.e. being gone in asia for 5 weeks in the middle of intensive training season). but i did run the Big House Big Heart 10k this year!
SPIRITUALLY
- Become confident enough in my own faith to be able to engage in 3 discipleship relationships that God brings. -- this one's also baffling. idk why i even wrote this down or what i was thinking when i jotted it down, but as i personally grew, God also naturally brought the right people my way without me seeking or pursuing them... and i might also argue that they may have been a greater encouragement and better teacher to me than i to them.
- Read the bible every day. -- whoops! my less-than-100% achievement in this area reveals the condition of my fickle heart. but i have gotten MUCH more consistent in my daily times of prayer and reading the Word this year than any other year... but still could work on this in 2012.
- Go on a missions trip. indonesia! hm. i still owe you guys a post on this one, but i spent 5 weeks in july and august in indonesia and hong kong, and it was the best 5 weeks of my life that completely flipped my life upside down. at the time when i wrote this down though, with my full-time job i had no idea where i would be able to go or how long... and the last place i'd imagine was halfway across the world for a whole stinkin summer! (regular people can't just take 5 weeks off from a full-time job unless God mandates it.)
- Gain a greater heart and a greater responsibility for serving God. hmm. also interesting that i wrote this one down. after this past semester though, idk if i will ever write that down again... haha j/k............... well, sorta. PHEW! responsibility is tough. it takes lots of commitment.
- Learn how to do things boldly for Christ... uhh, yeah. still learning this one too!
- Discover and develop my spiritual gifts. in 2012, on to learning how to steward them well now.
there are also a few other ones that i won't share publicly here, but glad to say that positive growth was also expereienced in those areas as well.
thank you for journeying along with me in this fruitful year of discovering more of God's faithfulness. for some of you, being the shoulder to cry on, the patient rock i can vent at, a friend abundant with forgiveness, or just a goofball that restores the funnies back into my life. it has truly been a year of productive struggles, but the best year of my life that was filled with blessings beyond my expectations or imagination, and trials that humbled me but also purified and refined my perspectives. if this was the trajectory that God was headed in this past year, 2012 has a much greater potential to one up 2011, even though i can't imagine how it possibly could.
so excited. well hello 2012!
thank you for journeying along with me in this fruitful year of discovering more of God's faithfulness. for some of you, being the shoulder to cry on, the patient rock i can vent at, a friend abundant with forgiveness, or just a goofball that restores the funnies back into my life. it has truly been a year of productive struggles, but the best year of my life that was filled with blessings beyond my expectations or imagination, and trials that humbled me but also purified and refined my perspectives. if this was the trajectory that God was headed in this past year, 2012 has a much greater potential to one up 2011, even though i can't imagine how it possibly could.
so excited. well hello 2012!
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