Truth is, I’ve always been like this - from the 8 year old girl who used to gallop her imaginary horse everywhere she went (yes, even in the supermarket) through to now, 23 years later, where my overactive imagination still whisks me off to have various adventures from mundane everyday places - my desk, the swimming pool, the train…you get the picture.
Twice in the last year I have abruptly awoken from listening to my ipod on the London to Brighton train, to find myself singing aloud to a bunch of bemused commuters and in fact not leading worship to a filled stadium of thousands, or headlining Wembley with Florence and the Machine. No, this is not good.
So, at the beginning of a new year, as a hopeless daydreamer - my prayer is for focus. Alertness and focus, to hear and do the things God has in store for me. To listen more to him and less to me, be more disciplined and be prepared to take more risks.
It’s so easy to become sleepy and complacent. To make excuses for our weaknesses, stop seeing the bigger picture and forget that God can do anything. Be it in our youth work, our families, our workplace, and our churches. I want to be awake, ready to do new things for God. I long for 2011 to be a year of scary challenges, where I am out of my comfort zone and living my faith out courageously, leaning heavily on God.
It’s a scary prayer to pray. One that has already, only two weeks in, led me to do things I didn’t think I could do even a month ago. I have no doubt that God will continue to lead me into places and situations that I least expect over the next 12 months. I’ll keep you posted…
Laura Haddow is an advertising exec for Youthwork magazine, a qualified youth worker, self confessed diet coke addict, singer/songwriter and lover of the colour grey. You can follow Laura now @laurahaddow
