Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14)The guilt trip section of the year is upon us, the time of New Year’s Resolutions. This is the time of year we promise ourselves and sometimes others to do things throughout the year that we know we will probably fail at.
You know how it is. We promise to make ourselves better this year. By year’s end we will be speaking Urdu fluently, we will lose 174 pounds, we will be able to bench press 350 pounds, we will read the entire set of Great Books of the Western World, we will get out doctorate, we will bring 100 people to Jesus, we will read the Bible through 12 times, we will be instrumental in ushering in an era of world peace and will run for president in 2012.
Little stuff like that.
And when we make our New Year’s Resolutions so massively, is it any wonder that by January 4th, we have already broken most of them.
So what do we do? Ignore the whole season of making ourselves better?
Micah, the Old Testament prophet, had the right idea. In Micah 6:8, he wrote: He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
That seems pretty simple. To act like you are supposed to act, to love like you are supposed to love, and to live like you are supposed to live. Nothing to it, really. Right?
Of course, as long as the Spirit resides within you, it is possible. It isn’t something, though, that you are going to sit down and decide to do on your own. On your own, you sin and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). With God, however, all things are possible (Mark 9:23).
Most of our resolutions are well-meaning, and we can really see ourselves keeping them and becoming better. But the only ones that matter, the only ones that will last, are the ones that glorify God.
Forget the past. Last year is gone – and I, for one, am glad – and there is nothing you can do to reclaim it or make it different. Life is fast and short, and the end comes quickly. So do something useful and make yourself like God wants: just, loving mercy and humble.
Those are real resolutions.
You will never need Urdu anyway, so go ahead and cross that one off.
No comments:
Post a Comment
To comment, post your comment and click the anonymous button. It would be nice if you signed it so I could know who you are.
You are welcome to say anything you want as long as it is nice. If I don't like it, or it is ugly, I will take it off, place it into the garbage disposal, grind it up, and allow it to be flushed into the Gulf of Mexico where it will be eaten by a fish and then excreted where it will lie on the bottom of the ocean until it is covered up by other comments.