Each of our successful resets has three components in common.  We set a goal, we work at that goal and we reach that goal.  Two of these moments are good moments, maybe even great moments. 

Setting the goal is a great moment.  When you set a goal you are full of hope.   You are setting a new course for your life.  It’s exciting. This is what setting a goal looks like to me

Buying a new set of workout clothes

Brainstorming a new plan of attack

Writing out goals in a new iPad

Sharing the dream with a friend

Buying a new calendar to hang on your wall

Setting a goal smells like dry erase markers and a new pair of sneakers

The end of that relationship goal or work goal or fitness goal might be failure, but at least you’ll have some comfortable clothes to watch television in. 

But lets say you succeed.  You lose that weight, you get that promotion, that new direction you sent the company succeeds and everyone applauds you.  That is another great moment.  This is what I think of when reaching a goal

It’s dinner out with co-workers to celebrate the achievement

For guys it’s finding a reason to walk around with your shirt off

It’s a year end bonus

It’s the slide show that highlights your victory

It’s retiring your fat pants

These two Facebook posts bookend our 4 year adoption.  Both were super encouraging but the growth took place between them

Jack announced to our church that we are “expecting” and that we are seeking to adopt. He also asked them to pray as we have LOTS of obstacles. He called it a “high risk pregnancy”:) Thinking maybe I need to go on bed rest! Care team get the meal calendar going! 

Hey gang.  We are in Haiti to pick up our daughter. Can you believe it?  Amazing.  She is out of the orphanage and living with us. We feel so blessed. Today is the first day that we have Daphlie and don’t have to give her back.  

There are two great moments with goal setting. Setting the goal and reaching the goal.  Unfortunately, the bulk of goal setting is spent in a third place.  Living in the unresolved.

Long hours of hard work

The temptation as you drive past Krispy Kreme

Mistakes and failures and set backs

Injuries that put you on the couch so instead of running a marathon you’re watching a Seinfeld marathon.

Waiting and waiting and more waiting

Self doubt and second guessing

Worries that wake you up and won’t let you go back to sleep

The pain of this middle space.

Living in the unresolved can be agony.

Waiting we face after we applied to get into a school.

Waiting for Mr or Mrs Right. 

After marriage there is the waiting for children. 

There is the waiting to get a job

There is the waiting of starting a new business.

Lewis Smedes put it like this.  “We wait in fear for a happy ending we cannot write.  We wait for a not yet that feels like a not ever.”

Karen Mains “Well,” she continued, “then how can I get into Heaven?” A five-year-old boy shouted out, “YOU GOTTA BE DEAD.”

The most important aspect of the reset is not the goal setting.  It’s not the goal achieving.  It’s the ability to persevere in the middle.

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Hebrews 10

For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? Romans 8:24

“It’s always the last place you look.” 

Faith only exists in the absence of what you hope for. 

If I lived on Full House all of my issues would be resolved in 30 minutes including 8 minutes of commercials and a song by uncle Jesse.  But life isn’t like that. There is always something unresolved.

God does not care so much where we are going as who we are when we get there.

Life happens in the unresolved.  Growth happens in the unresolved.  Faith happens in the unresolved. Faith doesn’t even exist unless it’s unresolved. 

Who do you want to be when your daughter gets here?

Where do you want to be when your situation is resolved? 

Everything these people wanted wasn’t resolved in their lifetime.