A really long list

Two days, folks.  Do you have your resolutions ready?

Is it even worth making resolutions this year with so many still left over from 2017?  Is it like making a wish list for Christmas?  Maybe I’ll get it, probably I won’t?

We tend to look at these waning days of the year and resolve what we want to do –  or need to do – in this coming year.

Again, we confront the reality:

If things are going to be different,

          something has to change.

And so, we set out with an overweight backpack crammed full of really nice resolutions and coordinating intentions, until there are three baking sheets of proverbial -- or actual -- chocolate chip cookies 12 inches away from me an hour before supper.  And who is to know?

That's why January 17 was established as National Ditch Day for New Year Resolutions.   Most resolutions, no matter how noble, possess a very short expiration date.

A true resolution is not just a desire to do, but the courage and audacity-- not just  to walk away from, but-- to run toward something different, deeper, or that which seems a stretch.

If things are going to be different,

      something has to change.

And that would be me.  

It is far too easy to blame others, my ever-shifting circumstances, 
or my self-excavated ruts, 
as I scamper like a mole 
from one muddy tunnel to 
                     yet another,
leading to dead ends, 
or even worse, 
right back to where I started.

Change doesn't just suddenly arrive on the doorstep one morning like a package from Federal Express . It starts with little tiny choices, one incredibly small step at a time, each one layering and building on the previous one.  You are going to have to work at it, sweat with it, and learn to trust God in it.

The story of real change comes to a sudden halt on about the second day of effort with one of three iconic exclamations: The first speed bump is gasping "I can't do this."  The dazzling showstopper is the audible cry, "What in the world was I thinking?"  And the final nail in the coffin of all resolutions, one size fits all,
               "It doesn't matter."

The whole desire to be different, to do differently, to be a better person, to be changed,

                       is wired into us

       by the God of new life, 
new nature, 
new heart, 
new vision.

The  basic truth of all Scripture is                "you can change."
Things don't have to be this way.

You are not defined by your past,

      nor your present situation,

nor your failures,

nor your really really bad choices, 

nor your selfishness,

nor by what others think of you.

But you are distinguished and designed and redeemed by God,

      Who loves you more 
                than you can know.

So we can fail even with 
every good endeavor, 
every good intention, 
every good resolution,

                  and God still loves us.

His love is not based on our performance,

                         but on His grace.

That is why Jesus came, 
because we can't do it 
on our own.
God never intended us to.

I cannot know what is ahead in this new year.   I cannot even fathom what will happen in the next minute or two.  But God meets me in my deepest need, a really dark place, 
and even surrounded by
what appears to be
barbed wire barricades.

What appears to be
     immovable in our sight,
is not just removable,
but always redeemable
             through God's grace.

He redeems a miry bog of trouble and despair,

"transforming the valley of trouble
       into the door of hope."
(Hosea 2.15)
  
We are looking for exit signs

when God is trying to lead us       through, 
not just to a better place, 
but to His redeeming
            right where I am.

I cannot do it
     through a list of resolutions,

nor by a mantra 
                  of religious rules,

nor by means of a prescribed list 
            of impossible behaviors, 

but by His whisper to 
               "Come, follow Me.”

The newness of the new year 
is not determined
by what I resolve,

     but to what God is calling me:

                  To Himself.

Behold,

I make all things new.

                Revelation 21. 5