It’s only natural at this time of year for people to look back on the prior year and forward to the upcoming year with a critical eye. We humans are distinguished by our cognitive capacities, after all. We have the ability to remember (pretty much at will), to learn from past experiences, to intentionally adapt our behavior and to make plans for the future.
I suppose that’s why so many of us make “resolutions” for each new year. Years ago it was very popular for folks not only to make resolutions, but also to let others in on them. These days it may be just as popular to make them, but not so many of us actually broadcast our resolutions to others. Some say that New Year’s resolutions are little more than people making up goals that they can’t possibly achieve in order to prove to themselves that they were never very good ideas to begin with. Well, I don’t know if that’s the case, but I do know that lots of us have experienced frustration in making what we hope will be positive changes in our behaviors. But that shouldn’t keep us from making resolutions and trying to accomplish them.
Actually, resolutions are basic to our faith and to many of the stories in the Bible. It’s just that the Bible uses a different word for it – not resolution, but repentance. Those two terms mean pretty much the same thing, even though people have a tendency to associate repentance with stopping negative behavior and resolution with adopting positive behavior. Actually they’re two sides of the same coin. Whenever the prophets or John the Baptist, Jesus or the apostles called people to repent, they were also actually calling them to resolve to make positive changes. Basically they were saying, “Stop that and do this instead. Stop moving away from God or against Him and move toward God and with Him instead.”
I think there are a few helpful hints for making resolutions that last:
- Consult with God. Invite God into your resolution-making process by asking God’s advice while you reflect on your life this New Year.
- Substitute negative habits with positive ones. Jesus talked about it in terms of cleaning a house of demons by filling it with God’s Spirit. Put another way, nature deplores a vacuum. If you accentuate taking on positive behavior rather than just stopping negative, you’ll focus on the positive rather than the negative. I still remember that the person who first taught me to drive kept telling me that the car would go where I look because my hands follow my eyes. Well, if we spend our time concentrating on our negative behaviors, we’ll move in that direction, and if we concentrate on positive behavior we’ll go in that direction.
- Keep your action plan simple, concrete and doable. Small steps count, too. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. It’s better to succeed at a little than to fail at larger goals. You can always expand on your changes later.
- Celebrate small victories. I’m forever telling my daughter, Rachel, to reward herself for her accomplishments.
- Ask God to help you by His Spirit. We can’t do it all by ourselves.
Speaking of asking God for help because we can’t do it all by ourselves, I have a resolution for this upcoming year. My hope and prayer is to be able to add another priest to the staff at St. Paul’s, at least on a part-time basis – to share some of the services and pastoral care opportunities. If there is anything I feel remiss about, it’s not feeling able to cover all the bases, pastorally and administratively. I would like for that to change, and so I hope to add the positive contribution that a colleague in ministry would bring to the parish.
Our ability to do this depends on our collective stewardship and the effectiveness of this year’s pledge campaign. We need your help. The good news to the date of this newsletter is that 175 households have pledged, thus far, and have been able to increase their pledge by an average of 9.2% or a total of $35,000, but we still haven’t received pledges from about 80 households and hope to hear from them soon. Please do send in your pledge form – including the time and talent as well as the financial portion – as soon as you can if we haven’t already heard from you. We can’t do it without your help.
Affectionately in Christ,
Phil +