What I’m Learning: Hope in the Present Reaches for the Future

June 22, 2024 Cathleen Zahradnik

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13 NIV

When people hear that I broke both my wrists in a fall on Mother’s Day their first reaction is surprise and sympathy. Their mouths drop open, they shake their heads and say, “How terrible for you!” I appreciate their compassion, but part of receiving the grace to get through this is accepting the reality of what is without feeling sorry for myself the way others feel sorry for me. Yes, this is a challenging season, but even the most challenging season is manageable. What makes it manageable? It won’t last forever.

Walking though this challenge knowing that every challenge will end fills me with hope for the future. Perhaps you could use a bit of hope, too. Here’s how hope can help you get through what you are going through.

Hope motivates movement. Hope in the present reaches for the future. The first time I did my physical therapy exercises at home following my right wrist surgery was excruciatingly difficult. Stiffness and pain made each small movement a major effort. I squeezed my eyes shut and forced myself to keep going, choking back tears. It wasn’t extremely painful, but it was extremely difficult. However, quitting was not an option. Why? I want to regain the use of my right hand!

Without the pain now there won’t be any restoration in the future. Dear Friend, you may be experiencing a tremendously painful challenge, but keep doing what you need to do to move forward! Remind yourself that it won’t last forever, and the future payoff is worth the challenge now. Don’t quit!

Focus 2024 With Just One Word

January 6, 2024 Cathleen Zahradnik

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3: 12-14

When you look back at 2023 what do you see? For me and my family, it has been a year of BIG changes! Transitions aplenty! Everyone in my immediate family moved into a new home. Tom and I moved to a new part of our state and have entered into a new season of work. Not only did we experience the natural chaos that comes with a move, but we also spent five months in limbo as we waited for our new house to be renovated and ready to move into. It has been a season of settling on the inside even when everything was unsettled on the outside. We have grown tremendously. As 2023 closes, we are in the beginning stages of settling into our new life. But what does God have in store for 2024?

If you have followed me for a while, then you know that I like to end each year with reflection and start the new year with a one-word theme. Keep reading if you don’t know what I mean!

There are plenty of resources to help you reflect, and I like to make use of them, but here are some questions from me to get you started.

Discover Your More in 2024!

December 30, 2023 Cathleen Zahradnik

We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps. Proverbs 16:9 NLT

Dear Friend,

I have a challenge for you as we close out this year.

How much time do you take for reflection? It isn’t part of our culture at all, is it? Go, go, go! Do more and do it faster! Make more money! Have more impact! Be more efficient! What if the more you are looking for is really about becoming who you want to be, who you were designed to be?

Here is my challenge: In these last few days of the year take time to stop, ponder, and determine what you want for next year.

To help you meet that challenge, I’m giving you some questions to jumpstart your reflection. Let them stir grief if needed, inspire celebration, and ignite desire for the new year. If you journal, have your pen nearby to jot down some thoughts.

How to Find the Peace You Long For

December 16, 2023 Cathleen Zahradnik

” For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.” Isaiah 9:6-7 NIV

Did your family celebrate Advent? Advent is a season of reflection in preparation for Christmas. Perhaps you didn’t grow up in a home that paid attention to spiritual preparation for December 25. Perhaps it was all about the food and the presents and the parties in your home. Sunday church was important to my family, but there wasn’t much reflection going on at home. Tom’s family had an Advent wreath in their home, and we carried that tradition into our family. Now that our kids are on their own, Tom and I still light the candles in our Advent wreath each Sunday of the season and spend time reflecting on the themes of Advent: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love contained in the first coming of Jesus to earth and pointing toward His expected return.

Advent is full of expectation. Waiting, longing, hoping for light in the darkness of winter. Looking back to Israel’s longing for the Messiah to come. Looking ahead to creation’s longing for its King to appear and set all things right.

My thoughts this week are on the theme of peace — Shalom – the restoration of all things. Every relationship. Every broken body. Every fractured peace in the world. All things. ALL THINGS set right. Life as it was meant to be from the very beginning. Life as God designed it to be.

Longing for restoration. Longing for peace. It doesn’t just exist during Advent, does it? That is where humans live. We live in a space of longing for life to be the way it was meant to be.

Where do you need peace in your life? What needs to be restored? Faith that God really does love you? Hope that relationships will be mended? Trust that everything you need will be provided? Vision of a future that you thought was lost?

Longing for something can be a dark and lonely thing, unless you are longing with the expectation that it will happen. That is the definition of hope. Longing with expectation.

Prepare for the New Year: What Got You Through That Will Carry You Forward?

December 9, 2023 Cathleen Zahradnik

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Colossians 3:23-24 NIV

Do you like to skip to the end of a book or a movie? Are you one of those people who just wants to see how it all turns out? Does knowing the end help you to enjoy the unfolding of the story better? You can see how everything fits together as it is happening. But it does take the element of wonder and surprise out of the picture, doesn’t it? When you don’t know the end, you find yourself trying to figure out how things fit. You think back to earlier parts of the story and try to envision where the creator is taking you. Life is more like that, right? As much as we want to skip to the end and see how it all turns out, we can’t. Each step along the journey of life is connected, but if we aren’t thinking back as well as looking forward, we don’t make the connection. Let’s apply that to right now, shall we?

The best way to prepare for the new year is to look back at the current year. We are a culture that skips over reflection to get to what is next. I know I do! Tom and I have been in a major transition for quite some time, and I have been so aware of how much I want to just skip to the end. But I have also been aware that I haven’t wanted to miss anything along the way. I know that every step is important. Every transition has endings and beginnings, but in between is the messy middle. That’s the place where you want to skip to the end! Now that our transition has more beginnings, I have been looking back and seeing the important steps along the way. The ones I wanted to skip.

Don’t Just Dream It, Do It!

September 16, 2023 Cathleen Zahradnik

“Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.” Philippians 4:8-9 MSG

Why do we often stop at thinking about an idea or a dream and not do it? Who do you dream of becoming? What do you dream of doing? What are you doing about it? Having those dreams is great. But dreaming about those things must translate into action for transformation to happen. Don’t just think the best, do something about it.

Dear Friend, don’t discount your dreams. They are in you for a reason. The difference between dreamers who only dream and dreamers who live out their dreams is simple. The ones who live them out are the ones who do something to achieve them. What steps are you taking to live out the dream that God has put in your heart?

Have given yourself permission to dream? Then you are off to a good start. If you are disciplining yourself to think about what is best, good! Are you beginning to apply the truth of who God says you are to your life? Awesome! You are making progress toward becoming the person you were designed to be. Now it’s time to take a step further. It’s time to do something about achieving those dreams! Think the best and then take steps in the direction of that dream. Here’s how.

Clear Goals, Clearer Purpose

March 11, 2023 Cathleen Zahradnik

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” Philippians 3:12

Movies. They entertain and inspire, right? Tom and I enjoy watching movies to relax. We like Hallmark movies because they are predictable. I am not ashamed! You always know there will be a happy ending and that there will be no jarring surprises in the process of getting there. We enjoy classic adventures like Star Wars, but we also enjoy inspiring true-life stories. One of our favorites is Chariots of Fire.

Chariots of Fire is set against the backdrop of the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris. It follows the development of Great Britain’s running team and focuses the story on two young men in particular, Harold Abrams, a Cambridge student who became a journalist, and Eric Lidell, a Scottish preacher who became a missionary to China. They are both runners and contenders for the gold medal in their event. Spoiler Alert: They both achieve gold medals, but their motivations for getting there and their responses to their challenges along the way differ. However, there is a similarity I want to emphasize for your benefit: They kept their goal in focus. They both had a clear vision of what they wanted to accomplish and devoted tremendous efforts to reaching that end.

Harold Abrams and Eric Liddell kept their goal in focus. That enabled them to go further, achieve more, and developed their character. What about you? How clear are your goals? Do they help you go further, achieve more and develop your character?

A clear goal helps you to focus your energy.

What is Your Goal?

March 4, 2023 Cathleen Zahradnik

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” Philippians 3:12

Are your New Year’s resolutions already forgotten? Tell those failure thoughts to be quiet! It’s not too late to regroup and reset. But a resolution won’t help you get where you want to go. What you need is an actual goal. Do you have a goal?

What’s the difference between a resolution and a goal? A resolution is a decision, a desired outcome, but it isn’t a real target. A goal is a specific target to aim at. I’ve heard it said that a goal without a target date is a dream. It won’t happen. So, setting goals is different than making a resolution. A resolution declares, “This is what I want.” A goal says, “This is what I am going to do and this is when I am going to do it.” It requires prayerful consideration and intentionality.

What are some things you want to accomplish before this year is over? Why not set some goals? Think about what completing those goals will do for you —for your character, for your growth as a person.

So, my friend, what kind of goals do you want to set? Here are some things you need to know about goals to get you started.

Obstacle or Opportunity?

February 25, 2023 Cathleen Zahradnik

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” Philippians 3:12

Are you a Sound of Music fan? While our kids were growing up, we had a double-video-cassette version of it and they loved it. When they were toddlers, they asked to watch “Doh-doh” (because of the song that goes “Doh, a dear…🎵”) It was very cute! If you aren’t familiar with the story, young nun-to-be, Maria, struggles to fit in with life at the abbey and Mother Abbess decides she needs a change of pace to determine if being a nun is truly Maria’s calling. So, she sends Maria to serve as governess to a widowed captain’s seven children. The rest, as they say, is history as Maria and Captain Von Trapp fall in love and she discovers that God’s will for her is to be a wife and mother, not a nun.

Maria faces many obstacles along her journey of discovery, but her primary goal is “to find out what is the will of God and do it whole-heartedly.” That’s a worthy goal for anyone!

One famous song from the musical is Climb Every Mountain. I remember singing it with my high school choir in my freshman year back in 19… never mind! In the context of the story Mother Abbess sings it to Maria to encourage her to persevere through the challenges she was facing with the Von Trapps and “find your dream.” This inspires Maria to continue on her discovery journey and not long after she finds herself married to Captain Von Trapp.

So, what does all this have to do with you? Like Maria, you are facing obstacles and challenges that seem to hold you back from finding your dream and fulfilling your destiny. There are struggles that may indicate where you are right now is not where you were meant to be. Do you know what they are? Are you ready to face them and “climb every mountain” till you find your dream, the dream that God has for your life?

Obstacles are opportunities to discover God’s will for your life. If you face them with the determination to discover His will and do it wholeheartedly, what you now see as a challenge will turn out to be a gift.

What obstacles are you facing? How can you embrace your obstacle as an opportunity? Here are some perspective-shifting tips.

How to Start Getting Where You Want to Go

February 18, 2023 Cathleen Zahradnik

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” Philippians 3:12

I’ve always dreamed of traveling. One of my first adult jobs was working in a travel agency because I loved the idea of travel.

Let me start off by saying that this particular business wasn’t a great place to work. The employees were not valued and cared for. On the first day, I was told I would be referred to by my middle name because they already had several employees who had a similar first name. Great start, huh? I never did more than help people book flights. “Why didn’t they just book them online?” you ask. Because at the time most people did not have computers and nobody had a smartphone. In fact, only a few of the agents working in this office even had a computer. The rest of us made phone calls to the airlines to book flights and hand-wrote tickets for customers who would come in and pick them up.

I didn’t work there long, but I did get an office “fam” (familiarization) trip to Puerto Rico out of it and fed my desire to travel to Alaska by fulfilling my responsibility to file brochures to places starting with the letter “A.” (Remember, no internet research. Beautifully printed brochures!)

Why am I talking to you about travel? Because going somewhere always starts with a dream. When was the last time you dreamed about where you would like to be in your life? What do you envision yourself doing that would satisfy your hunger to fulfill the potential you were born with? What do you dream of doing that would set you on the path to discovering the more you know you were meant for?

Where do you want to go in life and how do you get there? Here’s how to get started.