New Year’s Resolutions!
This is the time of year for re-evaluating where you have been, what you are doing, where you plan on going and what you plan on doing. I believe in New Year’s Resolutions. I think many people are against resolutions at New Year’s because they are fairly certain they have made a promise or vow that will probably be broken and thus increase their guilt for not being what they really need to be. Resolution doesn’t mean the same as a promise, although I believe in promises and vows. At our house we have always kept the old Thorndike Barnhart Intermediate Dictionary for the kids. Although this time next year our youngest will probably be off at college, I still plan to keep the old dictionary around the house. This particular dictionary was designed for a youngster plowing through those middle years of school. No matter what age the reader may be, the definitions are clear and illustrated, further enhancing the understanding. I checked it against my giant unabridged dictionary and still preferred the way the Intermediate Dictionary gave the definition of resolution. Observe the definition of resolution: 1. thing decided on; thing determined: 2. act of resolving or determining: 3. power of holding firmly to a purpose; determination: Lincoln’s resolution overcame his poverty and lack of schooling. 4. a formal expression of opinion: The club passed a resolution thanking the teacher for his help throughout the year. 5. act or result of solving; solution: resolution of a problem. In those five expressions we come to an understanding of what we are doing in making a New Year’s resolution. Therefore, we are, with determination, making a decision to firmly and tenaciously hold to a formally declared group of valuable ideals that shall, with God’s help, become actualized.
May God help us then, nobly make resolution to obey (according to the words of Lincoln from March 4, 1861) “the better angels of our nature.”
I. Let us resolve to pray.
As most people familiar with Christchurch know, we have advanced upon our knees. But it is not enough for us to agree as a collective Body in Christ that we pray; it is imperative as families and as individuals that we pray. I love the honey-dipped words of Alfred Lord Tennyson who declared, amidst his romantic depictions of Arthur and his knights, a truth about prayer that has echoed through the halls of time: “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice rise like a fountain for me night and day. For what are men better than sheep or goats that nourish a blind life within the brain, if knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer both for themselves and those who call them friend?”
Determine this year that you will wake up praying, go to sleep praying and sometime in the course of your day, spend some time alone with God in prayer. It will calm you, collect your thoughts, prioritize your duties, and align your love both for God and your fellow man. “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1).
II. Let us resolve to care for people.
“I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul” (Psalm 142:4). This lamentation poured out from the heart of the psalmist gives insight to the extreme hurt and loneliness that can often overcome a person. The inspiration of the Scripture reveals the great need of a hurting person, i.e. to have someone care for their soul, the real person, who they are on the inside.
Let us move beyond the expressions that keep us on the periphery of someone’s life such as, “How are you doing?” which means, “Don’t belabor me with anything personal, lie if you must, just smile and say, ‘Fine.’” This is one of the favorite greetings in modern America, “What’s up?” In other words, “What should be ‘up’ and whatever you do, don’t say anything that threatens my ‘up.’ Don’t you dare take me down to where you are. If you are down, lie to me and tell me everything is up and if that’s not true don’t drop any lower than ‘not much (is up).’” Keep everything non-personal.
III. Let us resolve to live malice-free in 2003.
In the introduction of our Pastor’s Word today I included words from the first inaugural address of Abraham Lincoln. The entire sentence reads, “The mystic chords of memory stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the organ when again touched, as surely they will be by the better angels of our nature.” Please understand these words were given just before over 600,000 men would willingly lay down their lives for the cause in which they believed. Four years later, this president requested in his second and last inaugural address that we all bear, “malice towards none, with charity for all….” Lincoln requested that the cheering cease when given news of the Army of Northern Virginia surrendering and that “Dixie” be sung instead.
As Christians, recipients of God’s forgiveness through the mercy of the cross of Christ, we have no other choice than to forgive and live malice-free. Hear the words of our Lord Jesus, “Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? (Matthew 18:32,33).
Even as a new year is ushered in, let a spirit of compassion and forgiveness be part and parcel of your temperament. On the other hand, let malice, bitterness, and unkindness go out with the old year. Be resolved to have this in your past. Get past your past; be malice-free in 2003!
-Happy New Year From Pastor Pope and Family!-