It’s tough to know how to feel about the start of a new year. We’re somewhere between “It’s a completely fresh start” and “it’s just another day.”

But it does give us a chance — at least symbolically– to understand that it is possible to start fresh, to have forgiveness, to make new choices. To understand, with Paul, about forgetting what lies behind and pressing on.

I’ve done my share of trying to be intentional about change at new years. Four years ago, I  picked three words for the year.  I forgot them by June. Three years ago, I tried again. I did better. Two years ago, I tried again. And I got confused because it was too many words to remember.

So in December 2010, I decided to pick one word. But then I did an exercise where you identify 100 goals. I did 99. And then you are supposed to trim it to the 15 most important ones. I didn’t trim my list. I started with 99 things to accomplish. Late in the year I gave up on some of them. But in a year that had some personal chaos, I did find that having a list of 99 goals, projects, things I needed to remember, helped me remember.

As I came to 2012, I found that I couldn’t come up with three words or 99 goals. I kept coming back to one of my goals from last year, to my one word.

Disciple.

Right before Jesus goes into heaven, he says to go and make disciples. And we read that and think, “That’s a great idea. Let’s do what Jesus says to do!” and then we’re stuck. Because we wonder what a disciple is and how do you make one and how do you be one?

Come back tomorrow. I’ve got some ideas. Almost 12 of them.

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This is the beginning of the fourth year of 300words. Thanks for coming along for the ride. If you need to unsubscribe because you are cleaning house, that’s a good thing. If you want to subscribe, that would be fine, too.