At the beginning of every new year, resolutions, new promises and deals with God, family and self are made as we all declare afresh that "This year is going to be different!"
Well I count myself as one such sucker. This year will be different!
Along with my usual annual goals to become "as big as my brother", to "get married...or at least go on a date or two", or "to eat more healthily" and the infamous but simple "to get to bed on time on a regular basis", this year's main agendas on my check-list are not as trivial or superficial. On a spiritual front, each new January begins with promises to try harder, to be at more meetings, to pray more, read the bible more than just on Easter and Christmas, to get deeper involved in church, to give more, to quit a habit or an addiction, to be a better dad or mom.
Basically, to do more.
With none of these being bad accomplishments to look back on at the end of the year, this year I have a simple resolve:
To DO less and to BE more
Sounds a very new age type of outlook on life but when the penny truly drops that we are human beings and not human-doings, we will clamber off the hamster-wheel of performance and trade the running shoes for a pair of footwear a liitle more comfortable and to our taste.
The bible calls us to keep in step with the Spirit, not to try and outpace him. My pure delight is to see what He is doing and then to run with that.
The great Puritan preacher Richard Baxter put it this way,
"If we rejoice firstly in our Christian duties rather than our Christian destiny, what will become of our joy when our duties fail or falter?"
So my pen is out and I've written down my top 3 resolutions for 2013:
1. TO RELAX MORE
2. TO ENJOY GOD MORE
3. TO KNOW THAT IT IS FINISHED...MORE AND MORE
Doing less, being more and the resolutions start shaping into something more like a recipe for a revolution.
