New Year’s Eve has never been a holiday I particularly enjoyed. Watching the ball drop in Times Square and listening to “Auld Lang Syne” don’t excite me. What I do enjoy is New Year’s Day and college football, except there are no bowl games this year. But I digress!
I don’t get excited about New Year’s resolutions either. Perhaps that is because the few times I’ve made them, I’ve not kept them.
What I do enjoy this time of year is taking time for self-reflection and prayer, allowing the Holy Spirit to evaluate my life and help me make some adjustments. Some years, He tells me what He told the year before because I didn’t correct it the first time. Then there are those times when He points out something new to me. In either case, it is an opportunity for me to grow as a person, a husband, a father, a disciple, a preacher…you get the idea.
In addition to prayer and Bible reading, two things I learned from others help me conduct this self-reflection.
First, I ask myself this question: “When I’m 70 years old and look back at my life, what do I not want to say ‘I wish had _______________ .'” Answering that question brings clarity and conviction.
Second, I evaluate my success at paying attention to the quadrant two aspects of my life. Quadrant two issues are my marriage, my walk with God, my health, my preaching, and several other key aspects of my life. Quadrant two issues are important but not urgent. They don’t cry for my attention until I’ve neglected them and suddenly they’ve become urgent…a crisis if you will.
Meanwhile quadrant one issues are important and urgent, always screaming for my attention. Things like deadlines and emergencies, the expectations and interruptions of others, and many other items you can easily imagine. You have your own list…if you think about it.
The goal is to never allow quadrant two issues to become quadrant one issues. Doing so negatively impacts our quality of life.
The problem is that we often spend so much time and energy on the quadrant one issues that we keep putting off action that will keep our quadrant two issues healthy. The result is we don’t take vacations, our marriage becomes stagnant, we gain weight, we stop having a quiet time, we fall behind on key career tasks (for a preacher, that means sermon preparation is consistently last minute), we keep putting off important stuff because other important stuff is screaming louder.
But when those quadrant two issues scream for your attention, it is VERY LOUD.
I pray you will make time this weekend to identify your quadrant two issues and then evaluate how effectively you are paying attention to them. And don’t forget to make your “I wish I had” list that you don’t ever want to become reality.
Happy New Year (a few days early),
Pastor Steve Hogg
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