Necessary or Good?

It’s January 1, the first day of a new year.  Most of us like this new, clean slate to begin again, to start fresh. Some people I know LOVE getting a new calendar. They love filling in all those spaces with their plan for the year or at least the next few months. Some people love goals and priorities. They thrive on making a plan and sticking to it.

For others of us, even though we like fresh starts, it is different. We see it like a blank canvas, a new space for a beautiful piece of art. But we know this can not be planned out to a T. We look forward to clean, open spaces but if it is too planned, too thought of in advance, we feel like we will wilt under the plan.

Whether we thrive on very detailed goals and plans or we prefer choices and flexible plans I believe we have a common desire. Goodness. We look into 2016 and we would love for it to be good.

Before I started walking this path of meeting with a counselor, examining the present state of my wellness and my marriage and unearthing anything from the past, I made a commitment to God and me. I do not want to remember and dissect the past if it is not necessary, essential. I actually cried out to God about it, “Do not let me do this if it is not absolutely necessary.” At the time it seemed to me it was to stay in the path of following him. Now I think it may have been more because of fear of what I may find down this path.

So at the end of my first solo appointment with the counselor Dave and I have been seeing I said to him, “Is this necessary?” What I meant was, is it necessary to continue delving into the past events of my life. Do we have to do this? Do I have to do this? Is this absolutely essential?

He responded with, what was probably the most profound part of our time for me, “I wouldn’t use the word necessary, I would use the word good.” He told me he recently heard teaching on the Hebrew word for “good” and how this word includes the concepts of potential and flourishing. When God created us he called us good. When God created me he called me good. He went on to say that evil is basically all that is opposed to the good God has in mind. It was as though these words hung in the air and I gazed at their hope and beauty. Yes, this is what I want. Yes, if this is our grid it will be worth it.

I wonder could this be a perspective shift as we look ahead to 2016? As we make decisions about our calendar, instead of asking, is this necessary? Whether we are planners or artists maybe we could ask, is this good? Here’s to a good year, come what may.

“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.”    Genesis 1:31