Bits from Bekah's Life

I love lists.

Last year, in leading the Ladies Bible Study at my church, I chose to teach from Gracia Burnham’s book To Fly Again. The first chapter in the book was called “Unfinished Lists,” and in it, Gracia talked about stumbling upon a list she had written the weekend she and her husband were kidnapped by terrorists. The list she found included all sorts of little household maintenance items – but she never had a chance to cross anything off the list. Gracia and Martin were in captivity for a year and eleven days before he was killed and she was rescued and brought back to the States. To this day, Gracia doesn’t know if the items on her list were ever completed by someone else – but that particular day, the priorities in her life shifted. Her daily list stopped including bookkeeping, planning menus, and cleaning and instead took on tasks like surviving gun battles, avoiding jungle diseases, and finding enough food to have strength for the next day.

In Bible study, we always had a question of the night, and that week the question was this: Where do you keep your lists and are you one of those people who writes down something you’ve already done just so you can immediately cross it off the list?
That would be me. I love the sense of accomplishment – and I frequently write down at least one thing I’ve already completed. Crossing off something immediately fuels me to complete the rest of the list.

A couple of weeks ago, I went list crazy. One of my friends usually writes back and forth with me quite a bit but she had a busy week and wasn’t able to talk as much as usual, and in her absence, I started making lists. I wrote to her and said Come back! I’m starting to make lists like Izzie made muffins! (That last part refers to an episode of Grey’s Anatomy when one of the characters, Izzie, grieving the loss of her fiancé, coped by baking muffins. Her roommates came home to find every square inch of the kitchen covered in muffins and Izzie poised at the mixing bowl, whipping up yet another batch.)

My lists were not about tasks that needed to be accomplished this week, nor were they rosters of Christmas card recipients or suggestions of gifts to give or receive. Mine were goals…covenants…commitments. Things to accomplish in the coming year and in the next decade as well. (Told you I went list crazy!)

Some of you might remember that at the beginning of this year, I created a list of 25 covenants and commitments for the year 2007. Some of you know what those 25 things are, because I’ve shared that list with you. Some of you (Mom) have raised an eyebrow and tried to avoid calling me crazy for being (overly?) ambitious.

It seems strange to me that this year is almost over, and the list I’ve stared at during accountability every week will be a list of the past. A new list is ready to take its place. And I’ve decided in the weeks to come that I will share more about those covenants and commitments that I made last December. But today I want to just explain to you why I did what I did.

About five years ago, I taught the book A Woman After God’s Own Heart to my Bible study ladies. I was pretty young to be teaching a Bible study – but I learned more from this book than any other I taught. The author, Elizabeth George, has a driven approach to life that isn’t easy, but it’s definitely doable. One particular piece of advice she gave stuck with me so much that I used it as a model for my covenants and commitments this year. Elizabeth wrote:

…Select five areas you’d like to become an expert in and label a file for each of them…What do you want to be known for?...such personal spiritual growth is all about preparation for ministry. It’s about filling yourself up first so that you have something to give in ministry!

So I did a version of that very thing this year. I selected five areas that needed discipline in my life. Five areas where distinct improvement was sorely needed. And in each area, I chose five things that I wanted to make a commitment to do. Some items are a daily assignment. Some are only done once throughout the course of the year. Some are much more random. But each needs to be addressed before 2008 drops into Times Square.

As for the “covenants and commitments” part…I did that because I can break New Year’s Resolutions with the best of them. I can sit down at 11:00 on December 31st and throw together a haphazard “this would be nice” goal list and within 24 hours, I’ve usually messed up everything on the list.

But last year I started early. I was purposeful. I prayed about the areas I felt God wanted me to improve and I made specific goals for how to accomplish those items. I set up an accountability system (which has been an incredible blessing). I found Scripture to back up each area – to remind me that the things I intended to do were not just “nice things to do.” They were things that I purposed to do for God. And for that reason, I called them my covenants and commitments. I take them extremely seriously because I’ve not just made a hopeful goal – I’ve made a promise to God.

Over the summer, I met with another friend who wanted to know more about my “five fat files” of commitments, and I was excited to see her take an adaptation of them into her own life. I look forward to celebrating with her at the end of the year when she looks back over her commitment to change and sees her success!

So that’s my latest adventure with lists. I know that all of you are probably more…normal?...than I am, and a list of 25 things may not be necessary for you. But while you still have a couple of months before the new year begins – maybe you could think about a list of your own. I promise that the rewards of accomplishing it (and by that I mean really accomplishing it – not crossing something off before you begin) are huge!