Happy New Year [Being Indian & Christian #16]
Yearly theme, fear of people's opinions, the audacity of merriment, and preparing for the new year
Hi friends,
I hope and pray all of you are having a joyful and hopeful new year. My wife and I spent the past few days with relatives since a cousin of my wife was getting married. It was great getting to know people in the family.
Theme for the year
This wasn't easy to finally decide on. But I realised that all the areas of my life that I want to see improvement on, have to do with people. Therefore, 2024 would be the year of people. This year would be a time in which I hope to intentionally seek to love and serve the people in my life. First and foremost, I want to grow in my love and service towards my wife. In addition, I also want to grow in loving and serving family and friends. People who know me often say I'm quite terrible at replying to messages. That's one of the areas I hope to get better at in the coming year. The way I can love and serve my students would be by planning and preparing for each lesson. All these would be ways I'd seek to make 2024 the year of people.
For those who aren't familiar with yearly themes, it is an alternative to yearly resolutions. The simple idea is to decide an area where you want to see growth, but not set quantified targets. I've been having yearly themes and have found this highly helpful.
If any of you would like to try out yearly themes, I highly recommend it. Click here to watch a video explains the basics of how to go about setting a theme for yourself.
Here are the links for this week
1. Blog post of the week — Log Kya Kahenge: How the gospel frees us from the fear of man
People may not approve of what we do or say. And that is scary.
But why?
Why are we so afraid of people? Why are we scared of their opinions?
Facing disapproval for our actions can be scary because acceptance often depends on how well we perform.
2. The Audacity of Merriment — by Kelly on Indiaanya
This was a great read. And it works as a supplement (providing the flip side) to my previous blog post titled “Hope does not always wear a smile” While hopeful Christians need not put on a smile and are allowed to mourn, the good news of the gospel also allows us to celebrate even in the midst of gloom around us.
3. A song for the new year — All of our tomorrows by Sovereign Grace Music
My wife introduced me to this song, and I absolutely love the lyrics. Look at the lyrics to the second verse:
May zealous youth and cautious age
Determine not the steps we choose
Great Shepherd, guide us through each day
Oh, how we want to follow You
Come Living Way, our way make clear
Let perfect love drive out our fear
Be Thou our vision, now and here
And all of our tomorrows
May this be our prayer for the coming year 2024.
That’s all for this week, folks.
Cheers,
Caleb
P.S. Just a reminder that Being Indian & Christian is on Instagram. If you would like a small summary of the article on beautiful small images on your Instagram feed, feel free to follow the page. Click here to reach the page.