January 1, it hits me. I should plan to do something, shouldn't I? Yes, I should, but what spurs me to this thought is not my own conscience, but what I hear from others. The Comparison Factor. How wrong of me, too.
One friend has resolved to watch old movies (TCM or AMC style) with her family to learn from the good stories in them, and to learn to appreciate the form of media available "way back when." My brother has resolved to read A Purpose Driven Life with his wife over the next 40 days to study together. Another friend has decided on the time-worn tradition of dieting. The list of people and their resolutions could continue, as pretty much everyone I know or meet has one or two to offer. It's one thing I can't reciprocate.
As for me, I like to make resolutions throughout the year, finding small steps to take that change the tide of daily life for the better. Several years ago, I put the effort into folding laundry right from the dryer, rather than creating Mount Apparel on a tabletop in our family room. This changed my way of thinking of laundry from a mounting annoyance to a task loaded with possibility. I could get it done faster and with less anxiety, mainly because I didn't see it growing to fearful proportions before my eyes. Big difference, but only to me. I do not think my family remembers the mountains.Another year, I promised myself to do dishes, by hand, once each day. I came from the womb hating the chore of doing dishes, which has grown into a family funny. My parents firmly believe that my living arrangements since my marriage have revolved around the procurement of an automatic dishwasher. We've had one in each place of residence, and I see no reason to stop now. I have failed at that one from time to time, as long ago as yesterday. Yet my goal remains constant. One day of unclean dishes won't undo me. I don't have to remain on a path of failure. Today, I will do those dishes (grumble, grumble).
I think, for many of us, appearances and self-esteem guide our resolution-making. Those things stand for deeper issues, namely an unhappy heart that comes from "the thief of joy" ... comparison. Just as I compare my lack of resolving to do anything at the New Year, comparing myself to anyone else for any reason shows a lack of faith and trust and even belief. I'm made in God's image, just like everyone else. Wishing I had someone else's features and trying to mold myself to someone else's proportions or mannerisms or to gain similar possessions flies in the face of faith.
I'd like to throw this out to everyone: make your resolution revolve around your heart. Resolve to make it a place of joy and giving. Make it a home to outreach rather than constant reflection of self. Use it to monitor your path toward God and to build a life reflective of Christ instead of the world.
Resolve to grow peace there and to teach it to pray minute to minute. Resolve to cherish the beautiful there, to admire goodness and mercy, and to spread your wings and fly in those directions, rather than to the places your friends or neighbors hope to go.
When we resolve to train our hearts like this, we will go to the right places, think the right things, and do the right actions. Our marriages will thrive, our children will blossom, our acquisition of godly ways will energize us to more and more of this kind of striving.
In the book and movie, "A Christmas Carol," Ebenezer Scrooge portrays an example of that change of heart, bringing him from a dour, humbug-propagating old curmudgeon to a lively, outwardly-focused gentleman. The one detriment to his story lies in the reason for his transformation -- guilt and mistaking action from the past and fear of an uncertain future. Nowhere do we hear or see a nod to God as Scrooge's transformational impetus, but as a Christian, I know that no true change in a human heart can happen without a connection to God, and an acceptance of his Spirit in our own hearts. We can do good as humans, but without a Savior as a guide and as our constant focus, we spin our wheels and shift gears in a human realm only. We can die trying to be perfect in a worldly sense, or we can live trying to be perfect in a Godly sense.
The choice is ours, each and every one of us. Resolve to feel good in the world, or resolve to something higher and more satisfying in the long run.
I pray you will resolve to renovate your heart, and that it make an always-improving home for the Spirit to live within you. If you haven't asked Christ to take residence there, yet, perhaps a good resolution for 2013 lies in asking him to come, and to let him be your guide this year and always.
Happy New Year!
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