Have you given much thought towards a New Year’s resolution? Not simply what your resolution should be, but what a resolution actually is? If you look it up in a dictionary, you’ll see that “resolution” has multiple meanings, including a level of clarity, so that we think of a television screen and pixels when asking about picture quality. Yet at this particular time of year, we think of the word resolution more in the sense of a decision or promise that carries with it some extra weight or significance. The New Year’s resolutions that many will make should represent a solemn promise to ourselves to do (or not do) something over the course of the coming year.
It does seem to me, however, that we should also draw upon the other definition of resolution – clarity – to help us as we think in terms of what an appropriate decision might be. Our New Year’s resolution should be the result of a deliberative process, whereby we envision what we might like to have as an improvement in our life over the coming year. We should look down the coming months with some degree of clarity regarding the current state of our life and what we would like it to resemble in the days, weeks and months of the new year, and then make a resolution that will help us get there. We make a firm promise to ourselves, based upon a clear understanding of the situation.
Why is clarity so important when it comes to New Year’s resolutions? Quite simply, it is because so many people will fail in their efforts to keep their own resolutions, and I think that is unfortunate. Too many people make the resolution to get into better physical condition, and they start out strong in January by going to the gym regularly and eating salads, but they start missing a few days of exercise and stop at the drive-thru for convenience, so that when April rolls around they have started super-sizing their value meal while binge-watching every show on Netflix. During those few months, the clarity of a healthy lifestyle has gotten blurred by the challenges of some of the steps towards that goal, and the easy thing to do is simply give up. Little failures add up to an increasing sense of impossibility, so we break our promise to ourselves.
Actually, what happens in that process is that we take our eyes off of the end objective and instead focus on the steps, not allowing for the fact that we all will stumble along the way. In this example, the goal was to get in better physical condition. The goal was not to go to the gym every day or never eat French fries. If we were in the habit of never exercising or eating fries three times a week, imagine the improvement of our conditioning if we exercised three times a week or had fries twice a month?
If we have made our New Year’s resolution with clarity, then nearly any effort towards the fulfillment of that resolution will be beneficial. If you want to drop a few pounds this year and your efforts only result in not gaining weight, you’ve made progress. If you want to read a book each month, but you only read four new books this year, you’ve made progress. If your ultimate objective is worthy, then any progress is positive. Seeing that with clarity will help you to move past the inevitable stumbles along the way that will try to discourage you and stop you from making any progress at all.
The Bible clearly teaches that we all stumble (sin), and that there is a great discourager (Satan) who lies to us and tries to tell us that since we are guilty of sin, then we should just accept that as our natural condition and not try to improve it, since we are simply going to stumble again. The Apostle Paul even wrote about how he couldn’t keep himself from doing the things that he knew he shouldn’t do, nor could he make himself do the things that he knew he should do. Yet Paul never gave up on the end goal, and continued to strive towards a more godly life. By having clarity of purpose, Paul stayed the course despite his many stumbles, and was a phenomenal player in the formation of the early church.
So, if you make a New Year’s resolution, give it some thought and see clearly what you desire, then hold to the goal and don’t get discouraged. That has been the formula for success for so many who have come before us. None of us is perfect, but we can all get up when we stumble and continue towards the goal.
Blessings to you all as we head into 2023 – Pastor Aaron