Tuesday, February 26, 2013

On Setting Goals, and Trusting God: A Reflection


New Year’s resolutions have never been a big deal to me. In fact I have never once made any. However, this year I decided to not make a list of resolutions per say, but a list of things I want to do and accomplish in this new year of 2013. Well we are now almost three months in to the year of 2013, and I actually managed to do and or watch God do three of things I had on this list already. What follows are six things from my list, and specifically the ways in which some have been checked off already.

1. See “The Lord Of The Rings” film trilogy.

I know what you are thinking. You never saw those? They’re like ten years old now!! But I actually saw the first film (“Fellowship of The Ring”) back in 2002 when I was in high school and didn’t like it at all. But so many close friends always talked about how great these films are, so I said to myself on New Year’s Eve, ‘alright, this year I will see them all!”

So when a good friend of mine announced she was hosting a Lord of the Rings marathon at her apartment at the end of January, I jumped at the opportunity to knock out this item on my list all at once! Things got a bit more tedious when I arrived at the said gathering and was told we would be watching the extended editions of each film! That is almost twelve hours of movies friends!!! However, I survived and by golly, loved all three movies. In fact, I was blown away! Finally I now understand why everyone always talks about them so much!


2. Attend a movie in the theaters by myself.

What? I am sure you are asking that!!! Seriously James? That is one of your goals for 2013. Yes indeed, last year I had at least three different close friends tell me they on a fairly regular basis go to movies by themselves and have a great time! My mom even told me the same thing, as she had done it before too.

I have for the past few years now, become a huge movie buff, and thus become very attentive to current films and their respective release dates from the months of November to February, knowing that this is when the Academy Award nominated films are generally released. Then, when they are officially announced come late January, I make more of push to go to theater almost every weekend to see as many as possible.

This year, one of the films I really wanted to see was “Silver Linings Playbook” and so I decided that I would make this my film to see by myself.  I pulled into the Regal Cinema in one of my local surrounding suburbs one Friday evening and walked up to the ticket counter.

“One for ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ please” I smiled and said to the gal behind the ticket counter.  She printed out the ticket, took my cash and I was set to head into the theater, after a quick bathroom break of course!

Once inside the theater I surveyed my potential seat options. The previews had already started so it was dark, but I immediately realized there was a group of ladies probably in the mid-50’s, early 60’s sitting together in a group on one side of the fairly small theater, and on the other side what appeared to be about three couples on dates, with one empty row separating them all. I quickly chose the empty row and plunked down for a fine two-hour story, well acted and with a kind of surprising ending.

Needless to probably say, it was an enjoyable experience, and one I will probably do again sometime soon!

3. Find a House to rent with four other fellas from church

This one by far has had the most of God’s intervention and hand upon it. Me and four good friends from church are going to be moving into a house in south Parma over the course of March-May this year. It took a full month’s search throughout many Cleveland area suburbs and many houses were either too far out of our price range or in too bad a shape for us to even consider moving in.

Enter the house in Parma, which is actually five minutes away from where I live now with my parents. A good price for rent each month, spacious and in a big neighborhood with plenty of parking for hosting small groups, parties and various other friend filled escapades. Yet, there were some legal matters that needed to be ironed out before we could in fact put our deposit down. Thankfully my one friend and future roommate happened to meet a realtor who was not only a fellow Christian, but was more than willing to walk us through the whole process!

So as of last week, we five fellas are going to be living together come May! Excitement abounds enthusiastically in my heart over this!!!

4. Have an epic adventure this summer!

Obviously this one hasn’t happened yet, as it is only February, but I truly want to have some kind of amazing adventure around town with many of my close friends this upcoming summer! I feel with God providing the house for four of my friends and me to rent, and all five of us officially being roommates come May, as summer is just at the cusp of blooming, that this epic adventure will involve them, the house, and many other close friends from church in some way! We’ll see!

5. Find a full time job in some form of marketing or sales

While many of you know my background in in education, I find myself desiring to do something in marketing/social media/sales. I find this enjoyable in the capacity I have functioned in it through my part time job, and think I could have a future knack for it somewhere full time. So business cards have been printed and online applications have begun to be filled out! Once again, I will see what God does with it all!

6. Write more. Period.

This is the first blog post I have written since last summer, and it is totally different than my old format of finding music, movies and books that speak God’s truth to us. While I plan to still try and slip some of that in periodically, my goal in writing more often is that I will now allow myself the freedom to write about whatever I want, whenever I want, even if it is just a list I have created as goals for this new year!

Between my work for The Music Moles and now my rebooted personal blog here, I want to flush out my thoughts more often and put them down on paper, while still allowing the light of Christ in my life to ‘wash the darkness away’ as I share the story of my life and what God is teaching me and showing me throughout my walk with him.

So hopefully there will be more regular posts from me again. Join me on my journey if you so choose.