New Vintage Leadership

Happy New Year to everyone. It’s January 1, and that means it’s resolution time!

Sociological bean-counters report that now barely one in three of us continue to make the traditional New Year’s Resolution. Our resolutions seem always to tend towards pushing the limits of our abilities, testing the strength of our self-denial. No wonder resolution-making is falling by the wayside.

The tradition of making New Year’s resolutions dates back to the early Babylonians. They too tended towards the pragmatic and responsible side of resolutions, most often resolving to return borrowed farm equipment.

My family has a tradition we affectionately refer to as the “The Jar.” We take our resolutions and our predictions for the year, seal them in a jar, and open them on the following New Year’s Eve. My resolutions for 2012 were:

Well…never mind.

What is it about the future that makes both believers and unbelievers so frightened, so anxious, so fearful, so in need of the slate being wiped clean? Most of us at some point had an encounter with Charles Dickens’ famed story, A Christmas Carol, in which Ebenezer Scrooge is converted from chronically selfish, bitter, and hateful, by what—a replaying of his personal sins and their potential results before his eyes.

Something like that happens at New Years. We pledge to lose 15 pounds because we finally realize how fat we have become. We resolve to save more and spend less now that we realize we’ve dug ourselves a hole. We resolve to give more to the church or to get the GPA up…as though because it is New Years, we will have more strength. Every health club in America can tell you about the New Year’s resolution season, and how people begin the year with tremendous verve for fitness, and are sitting on the couch verveless by March.

What if we resolved to be more of what we can be, instead of resolving just to be less of what we already are? What if we allowed God to make our resolutions for us—focusing on what matters most? What if we, like Paul, said,
“But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.” – Philippians 3:13a-15.

Now, that’s a goal.

To that end, I offer you a prayer from my friend Ray Hardin:

AMEN

Note: this post was adapted from a previous post from New Years Day 2010.