Catching up is hard to do

It's hard for me to believe how far behind I've gotten, a mere 31 days into the year, on my hopes and dreams for 2019.

I don't know where to start in trying to catch up.

I know I won't have a chance to catch up if I don't start somewhere.

And so I am typing a few words on the blog.

I checked my growing to-do list to see whether anything is urgent. Only one has to be done before the calendar page turns to February or not at all. It won't be missed if I don't do it; it might bring cool rewards if I do it. The rest are things that I will just feel disappointed to have not accomplished.

And as for disappointment, dealing with disappointment is a theme of a Bible study I started Jan. 21 that I'm disappointed to say I'm so far behind on already that it's all I can do to not just forget about it. It seems so overwhelming.

And yet, it's something I really want to continue with. I want to find the promised "unexpected strength when disappointments leave you shattered."

I don't feel shattered right now, and for that I am grateful. All I've read so far in the book makes me believe it can give me an understanding of how God's promises in the Bible can help me deal with reality -- including disappointments. My hope would have been that I could rely on God to help me avoid being shattered by circumstances. Instead, I'm seeing that the examples in the Bible show that even if or when we are torn apart, we can trust that God is at work -- faithful, working for good.