How To Use Milestones To Kick-Start A New Thing

See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.  Isaiah 43:19

Yesterday was a big day on The Stretched Blog as we celebrated the 1,000th post.  Milestones like this are great as they permit us to reflect on where we’ve come from and what we’ve accomplished.  Thank you to everyone who shared thoughts and good wishes to help celebrate this big event.  It’s important to pause and commemorate achievements like this.

It’s also important to keep going – to start again (and again).  Milestones like yesterday should be a reminder that each day represents a new beginning.  I love the verse from Isaiah mentioned above.

While today is the 1,001st Stretched Blog post, it is also the first blog post of the new thing that God is doing in my life (and here at The Stretched Blog)  starting today.  I’m so thankful and excited for the new things that await me and The Stretched Community.

How To Use Milestones To Kick-Start A New Thing:

1. Keep track of what going on in your life.  Whether it’s a journal, a blog, a photo album, or a really good memory, documenting our past is such a great way to learn and to recognize growth.
2. Pause, commemorate, and celebrate.  Don’t rush my the milestones without taking time to reflect and to be thankful.  Just like the Israelites setup 12 stones when they crossed the Jordan River (see Joshua 4), it’s important for us to set up monuments to remind us of God’s mercy and provision in our lives.  Yesterday’s post was a “12 stone post” for me.
3. Keep going.  The Israelites didn’t camp out at the 12 stone monument.  They kept moving into the Promised Land.  Similarly, we need to keep going.  There is a new thing waiting for us as we head into our Promised Land.
4. Repeat.  Repeat.  Repeat.  There will be more milestones to celebrate.  And there will be more new things ahead.  Don’t stop.  Don’t rest on your laurels.

What milestones can you celebrate today?  And what new thing is God doing in your life?