Resolution 2015: Expect the unexpected

Hi everyone!

HAPPY NEW YEAR and hope that you had a wonderful end to 2014 and are enjoying a well earned rest today.

It's that time of the year again - the start of another year and that means of course, time for a lot of people to write up their resolutions. Regardless of whether we say we have them or not, everyone has something they want to achieve over 2015 - whether it's to be healthier, love themselves, love others, do something or make something happen.


The thing that the last year has taught me however is that resolutions have one slight flaw to them - they are what we want to achieve!

Now I'm not saying there's anything wrong with having goals, but it's important to note that what we want to achieve, and God's plans for us, don't always follow the same path. Just because we want to do something, doesn't mean that it'll work into God's great plan for our life and a lot of the time, we'll end up somewhere very different to where we wanted to be at the start of the journey.

If you want an example of this, here's what I thought was going to happen in 2014 and what actually happened...

• I would be working to make a difference to the lives of young people - OK so this did sort of happen, but not in the way I was expecting. I was thinking I was going to be a youth worker and spend day after day with young people, but in actual fact, I instead now work for the administration team at an organisation that has young people at it's heart - which while it isn't dealing with young people day in day out, is still very important as if we didn't do what we do, then the programs that help young people wouldn't be able to be as effective as they are.
  
  
• I would be doing my communications and writing as a hobby, rather than a profession and due to lack of interest I would leave the communications industry - Big NOPE. Not only do I work in a Marketing and Communications team in employee communications, I'm actually happy to be doing it and I get a lot out of the challenges of the business and the fun dynamics in the team I work with.
  
  
• I would be growing the efforts of my local diocese and using my skills from my time in youth ministry to grow local initiatives- Big NOPE. God had something much bigger planned and now I write this knowing that in three days I am headed to a leadership camp for a movement that is not only going to hopefully bring many back to the Church, but that has inspired me to use my gifts and talents for a much bigger cause. I've stepped down from doing projects locally but I do so knowing God has called me to something that is so necessary and that I'm so blessed to be a part of.

These three are just some of the many cases of how in 2014, what I thought would happened was skewed or completely changed when it went through the dealings of life and when I trusted the will of God instead of my own.

Now there are no complaints from me about the plans changing. Sure there were challenges in 2014, but I wouldn't have that year any other way. God showed me a plan greater than I could have ever imagined and it's made me realise the need to trust him so much more with life and not want to take so much control over things.

And that's the thing we must remember. No matter how many resolutions we make, we will never know the amazing plan God has for us that could trump all of these and make our lives greater than we could ever dream.

So in 2015, I invite you to make resolutions, to strive to be the best you can be. I also however suggest that you be willing to change these resolutions along the way or even be open to new ideas - because in the end, there could be a result at the end of the year that will make you wonder why you even made those resolutions at all.

Wishing you all a wonderful year ahead!

P.S. New blog posts will happen fortnightly from this post onwards. This is due to more time being spent on external projects and also so that I can achieve my 2015 resolution - to catch up with those family and friends I haven't seen in a long time.