4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength
Deuteronomy 6:4 -5
It is called the Shema. It is the ancient prayer of Judaism and it is the prayer our spiritual forebears prayed, and still pray, at least twice everyday. It is their mantra, a short phrase that is repeated over and over, allowing it’s truth to simply become a part of their life. Our Jewish brothers and sisters ground themselves daily in the reminder that God is a part of their journey. It is the place they always return.
We have flipped the page on a new year. It is often a time of setting goals and making resolutions. A time of looking ahead and deciding what we hope to accomplish, experience and become.
Like my biblical ancestors, I am learning to undergird all my hopes and aspirations with a deeper sense of where I am going. So I sat down with a blank piece of paper and answered the following questions:
What went well last year?
What do I wish went differently?
What did I learn?
2016 in one word was…
What words do I want to describe 2017?
I want to 2017 to be the year of….(What’s my mantra?)
After answering these questions and reviewing the answers, I claimed my mantra for 2017: Walk Humbly with my God.
Walk – don’t be in hurry. Be intentional about about pace. Don’t rush from one thing to another. Walk.
Humbly – Don’t take yourself too seriously. Be open. Be flexible. Be willing to be wrong.
With my God – I am just one part of God’s amazing creation. Let me not lose sight of my place in this story and let me never forget who is this story’s author.
Take some time today to answer these questions. Claim your mantra. Post your mantra so we can encourage each other on this journey.
