FAY ROWE

It happens every year in January. I map out the year ahead with things like family vacation, conferences, purchases. Just normal planning that has to be done. But, always, there are the inevitable plans to do things I should have done last year but didn’t, and the inevitable plans to stop doing things that I’ve been trying not to do for years.

*Sigh*

This year, I am SURE I am going to stop cutting my own hair. Not today, however, since I already snipped a strand or two that my stylist left the other day. Just a little on the left side, since it puffed out a bit and left me looking unbalanced. I wondered if she left it on purpose, just to test me since I promised I wouldn’t pick up the scissors before I got back to her five weeks from now. But she wouldn’t do that. I’m sure.

I felt badly about it, right away. Really badly. And I almost went into the smack-talk to myself about myself that usually follows The Cut. But then, since smack-talking is off the table this year, as per The Plan, I immediately said, “It’s okay, Fay. It had to be done, and remember how you’re going to look for Perfection in Imperfection this year? Well, you’re not perfect, so…winning! But your hair is looking better, so you’re winning on both fronts.”

I’m thinking that while I might be alone in the hair abuse department, I am not alone in the self abuse department.

Let’s let go of it all this year, okay? Let’s work. Let’s play. Let’s rejoice in small victories as well as big. Let’s look around and really see how blessed we are right now. We have messy children, but we have children! We have family and work cohorts who can be irritating, but we have family, and we have work! Let’s read our Bibles more than our social media sites, and believe it. It will help us remember how empowered we are, how precious we are to One who says He is our true Father, and in whose image we were created. One who is more than willing and able to do exceedingly above all we ask or think, in us and for us, as we ask Him to and rest in Him.

Yeah, there it is. The Challenge. Mostly, in all that we do, let’s rest.

I had a dream decades ago about a young woman dancing alone in a spotlight. I had the sense that there was only one watcher. She was so graceful, so peaceful, so joyful. Then the light moved out in a circle around the dance, and I could see scenes emerge around her. Scenes of busy city streets, fighting, stealing, war. But she still danced as if none of this belonged to her.

That’s what rest looks like, I imagine.

I wish you all a productive, joyful, restful 2018.