Resolve to Change

amai heian · 01-04-2007, 04:29 AM

The New Year's come. What now? To change or not to change?

It’s that time of the year again—the endless food fests and anticipated gift-giving ceremonies that mark the (now sadly commercial) yearly affair called Christmas. With radios blaring Christmas songs left and right, advertisements enticing us to buy a lot now and weep for our savings later, it’s hard not to feel the Christmas spirit in the air. And after all the sweets have gone the way they usually do (down the sewage system), the season calls for us to whip out our pens and try to fill a clean sheet of paper with promises that are going to be broken anyway. That is, if we let ourselves break these promises.

Perhaps one of the reasons why we fail to keep up with our perennial list of New Year’s Resolutions is that we are expecting to do too much, too quickly, and with doubt at our own capability thrown in to the mix. Perhaps it is the sheer magnitude of the amount of work we have laid out in front of ourselves. Perhaps it is even the reluctance to accomplish anything in the first place. Now, New Year’s Resolutions are made just for the fun of it, and not to serve as a foundation for mapping out our entire future.

Maybe you could say that we conform only to God's master plan. Maybe we could say that trying to plan out our lives is futile--after all, we aren't really sure if what we plan will turn out perfectly, since we do not know what God plans for us. But it can help put things back in perspective, make us step back and examine our lives more thoroughly and assess the past year and the lessons we learned from it, all in preparation for the future.

Then again, maybe an entire future is too much a grand idea to be looking forward to without considering the basics first; a look into the micro level will work for a starting point. Your hopefully life-changing resolutions can be made at any time you choose: in the spur of the moment, after a long thinking session, or at a particularly shattering fall from a cherished peak. Keep in mind that there must be a definitive deadline for your plans, but also remember not to rush headlong into any decision. Set doable goals for yourself; keep the seemingly farfetched ideas for later, after you have finished the structural latticework. Provide incentives for your progress. Keep the burning enthusiasm lit in you; nothing could break a determined individual more easily than the loss of that interest to keep him going when his will could not. Anticipate problems and stand your ground; they are merely road blocks to your vision of grandeur. Above all, never stop trusting the Lord. The world may be against you, but then, in times of trial, doesn’t it always? And what's the world compared to the awesome power of God's hand?

01-04-2007, 04:29 AM	#1
amai heian amai heian Edit Disciple	Resolve to Change The New Year's come. What now? To change or not to change? It’s that time of the year again—the endless food fests and anticipated gift-giving ceremonies that mark the (now sadly commercial) yearly affair called Christmas. With radios blaring Christmas songs left and right, advertisements enticing us to buy a lot now and weep for our savings later, it’s hard not to feel the Christmas spirit in the air. And after all the sweets have gone the way they usually do (down the sewage system), the season calls for us to whip out our pens and try to fill a clean sheet of paper with promises that are going to be broken anyway. That is, if we let ourselves break these promises. Perhaps one of the reasons why we fail to keep up with our perennial list of New Year’s Resolutions is that we are expecting to do too much, too quickly, and with doubt at our own capability thrown in to the mix. Perhaps it is the sheer magnitude of the amount of work we have laid out in front of ourselves. Perhaps it is even the reluctance to accomplish anything in the first place. Now, New Year’s Resolutions are made just for the fun of it, and not to serve as a foundation for mapping out our entire future. Maybe you could say that we conform only to God's master plan. Maybe we could say that trying to plan out our lives is futile--after all, we aren't really sure if what we plan will turn out perfectly, since we do not know what God plans for us. But it can help put things back in perspective, make us step back and examine our lives more thoroughly and assess the past year and the lessons we learned from it, all in preparation for the future. Then again, maybe an entire future is too much a grand idea to be looking forward to without considering the basics first; a look into the micro level will work for a starting point. Your hopefully life-changing resolutions can be made at any time you choose: in the spur of the moment, after a long thinking session, or at a particularly shattering fall from a cherished peak. Keep in mind that there must be a definitive deadline for your plans, but also remember not to rush headlong into any decision. Set doable goals for yourself; keep the seemingly farfetched ideas for later, after you have finished the structural latticework. Provide incentives for your progress. Keep the burning enthusiasm lit in you; nothing could break a determined individual more easily than the loss of that interest to keep him going when his will could not. Anticipate problems and stand your ground; they are merely road blocks to your vision of grandeur. Above all, never stop trusting the Lord. The world may be against you, but then, in times of trial, doesn’t it always? And what's the world compared to the awesome power of God's hand?
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