A Word or a Resolution?

Wednesday, December 28, 2022

Last week’s post focused on Christmas, so it’s only natural that we now spend a few minutes on the new year.

Do you treat the new year differently than other times of the year? Is it a special time where you take stock of the previous year and make a concerted effort to either stop doing some things, keep doing some things, or do some new things?

I wish I did a better job of that. Maybe my New Year’s resolution should be to do a better job of, well… making resolutions. I know there are camps totally against resolutions and camps that live and die by them. I’m one that just doesn’t give them much thought.

I don’t think they are bad. What can be bad about resolving to… whatever. I guess they get a bad rap when we continually set New Year’s resolutions, then like clockwork, give up on them and never change. I agree, that sounds depressing.

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Some people choose a word for the new year, instead of adopting resolutions. Words like “hope”, “resilience”, “wellness”, or “focus”. I like that idea, but for me, as a project manager for much of my life, who lived by lead and lag measures, these words are like lag measures. It’s great to be hopeful, but what do we have to do daily (lead measures) to reach a hopeful life (lag measure)? What must I wake up and accomplish (lead measure) to live a focused life (lag measure)?

It’s kind of like this week’s photo. As I walked along the path, I could have chosen to look out over the water and admire the clouds with the sun peeking over their top. Or, I could get down close to the ground and admire the intricacies of the beautiful spider’s web. I did both.

The two practices, resolutions, and words for the year, get me to the same place. I need to decide what large outcome is important and daily live it out.

I appreciate the way Paul put it in the book of Romans.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:1-2a, NIV)

The big goal, the word of the year should “worship.” Our true and proper worship is to be holy and pleasing to God. We can do that by offering our whole selves as a living sacrifice to Him. When we offer our lives as a sacrifice, we are transformed.

The resolution is to renew our mind. We want to stop living as we want to live, always pleasing ourselves by attaining whatever feels good to us. Pick your poison. Success, money, love, power—could be anything outside a relationship with God.

Peter tells us this in his second letter.

“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 3:18)

Maybe I’ll adopt the word “worship” for 2023 and make a resolution to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ.

How about you? I’d love to hear your plans for 2023. A word or a resolution? Or maybe something else.