All photos of Unsplash
A few years ago in the church I attend, there would be a short, weekly interview with an individual about TTT: This Time Tomorrow. It was a great way of getting to know what a Monday morning would look like in somebody else’s life journey.
Whilst reflecting on those life journeys, I thought about TTNW: This Time Next Week. Then, we could go further into next month, next year, the next 5 years, 10 years and then reality has got to kick in at some point, hasn’t it? So allow me to ask about TTNY: This Time Next Year.
Some of you may remember a TV show, This Time Next Year, that was presented by Davina McCall. It aired between November 2016 and March 2019 over 3 series.
For any who didn’t watch it, participants made a pledge to fulfil a personal life goal within a 12 month period. The show continued as if a whole year had passed in the space of a few minutes. It was cleverly done. We saw massive weight loss stories such as a mother and daughter who successfully lost 15 stone between them, new careers being followed and a deaf toddler fitted with a cochlear implant for the first time being able to hear and respond to sound.
There were before and after interviews with a brief 12 month diary clip shown in between which was very emotional and often had viewers in tears. Davina McCall gave some good advice along the way including…
“Goal setting is a really good way of improving your self-esteem…You set yourself little goals and achieve them, it’s such a good way to make you feel good about yourself.” Here’s some more from Davina…
"Every time you achieve your goal you think, ‘I did that’. I do this all the time... I set out a goal for myself and tell people and I think it’s to shame myself into making it happen.”
Let me then ask you about where you’d like to be This Time Next Year, given that we’re in January of a new year when many people make New Year’s Resolutions. Think of different areas of your life such as family and friends, work, school, college, university…
But, what about any spiritual goals? Paul, when writing to the Philippian Christians thought about his past, present and future when he said…
“ whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ…I consider everything a loss because of the…worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord…I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own…but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection…Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on…one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal…All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things.”
May This Time Next Year be a time when you reflect on your journey with God and it may be that today is when it all begins!
DAILY MESSAGES WITH MEANING (18/01/24)
Written by NIGEL BINDING
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