My husband challenges me daily to press into all that the Lord has created me to be. The following, by Sir Francis Drake, written in the year 1580, was in my email box from Bill this morning as he asked me this question, “What does your 2017 look like?” I pass this along to spur your thinking as well so that we all hit our mark with intention and without fear in the upcoming new year.
Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.