Photo by nechbi

By Debbie Gin

Do you sometimes feel like you’re forever doing the “Bunny Hop” (two steps back, three steps forward) in life?  When I get to June or July of a given year, I try to do a midterm check: Where am I with God?  Where am I with my interactions with others?  Where am I with my professional life?  Where am I with my New Year’s resolutions?  What were my resolutions again???

Midterm evaluations are tough because I realize how I’ve basically taken those two bunny-hop steps back.  It doesn’t feel so great mainly because I want to be well past three steps forward, let alone two steps back!  What happened to that regimented exercise plan I created at the start of the year?  Have I yet again postponed that writing goal?  How many months has it been since I committed myself to getting together with so-and-so?  And because I’m such a task- or goal-oriented person, I will often procrastinate on this midterm check, not wanting to bring to consciousness just how backward I’ve gone in my journey of growth.

While my midterm evaluating is sometimes spotty, I’m much more consistent at the end of the year.  And I find that, for the years where I’ve committed to doing that sometimes-painful midterm evaluation, the end-of-the-year check is surprisingly fruitful.  Though in the middle of year I may have taken two steps back, by end of year, I find that I’ve taken three or more steps forward.  Sometimes the steps forward don’t look like how I had originally imagined, but they are steps forward.  Closeness with God may be in an area different from what I had initially expected; reaching a professional goal may look different from what I had originally planned.  Still, they are ultimately movements toward growth and development.

Seeing life’s movements through the eyes of biblical characters has also helped me understand that life does not need to be evaluated along a linear schema.  When I consider the life of Ruth or that of Moses, I see how God has been working in their lives in what may seem a two-steps-back-three-steps-forward pattern.  Another way to see divine orchestration in the life of Ruth and Moses, however, is to recognize how moving from one area of life (e.g., in Moab as a married, then widowed, woman) to another area of life (e.g., in Israel as a widowed, then married, woman) may be more reflective of cyclical life than linear life.  All the while, God is present, sustaining and developing you and growing your dependency on God.

So whether you approach life in linear or cyclical fashion, whether you are more goal-oriented or people-oriented, whether you like the Bunny Hop or not, my end-of-year encouragement to you is to take intentional time now to do some reflecting.  Even writing this blog entry has helped me to see how God has been at work in my 2013.  Explicitly stating, or writing, things makes room for you to see even deeper realities.  I also urge you to mark your calendars for time to do the midterm reflection in 2014.  Why not pencil it in now?

Dr. Debbie Gin is Director of AAWOL (Asian American Women On Leadership). She is a Senior Faculty Fellow in Faculty Development at Azusa Pacific University and an Associate Professor in Biblical Studies and Ministry at Haggard Graduate School of Theology. Debbie and her husband live in southern California.