Resolved
It’s that time of year again…
How about you stop playing the games and go ahead with no New Year’s resolutions this time? It will save some time, energy, and feelings of guilt when you abandon them a few weeks later. However, if you are resolved to make intentional changes to life in the coming year, here are several real-life resolutions that will bring about lasting impact to both you, your family, and the world around you. So, if you are going to make a resolution this year, why not make one of these?
Deal with Unforgiveness
Unforgiveness and the bitterness that accompanies it are a silent emotional cancer that will eat away at your internal joy in life. Harboring it will only harm you and you need to take it seriously. Don’t combine taking the step of forgiveness with that of restoration. Someone who has deeply harmed you might not need to be brought back into a position of influence and trust in your life. You can forgive in your heart without restoring them into your life. Don’t let the bitterness of an unforgiving heart take root in your life. Dealing with unforgiveness will take weight off your heart and life. It frees you from the shackles of hurt, anger, and hate.
You might be in the situation that the person you most need to forgive is no longer alive, or there is no way you could reach them. That doesn’t mean you have lost the opportunity to forgive. You can take time privately, away from anyone else, and mentally picture that person. Then intentionally speak words of forgiveness to the image. If you prefer a more concrete scenario, you can sit across from an empty chair and speak as if the person is sitting in that chair.
Perhaps you are the one who needs to seek forgiveness. You cannot force anyone outside of yourself to give forgiveness. You can acknowledge your wrongdoing and ask for it. You might need to use the same empty chair for this part, but it is worth trying. Again, you can’t make the other person forgive, but making the effort to seek forgiveness relieves the burden from your own life.
Quiet your Soul
Recognize that you are a limited person. You cannot do everything and you cannot fill every space of your day with something. Nobody can. Nobody. Sabbath is God’s gift to His creation. It is both rest from everyday toil and a demonstration of trust in God’s creative story. Schedule into your calendar intentional times of quiet. Put the devices away. Shut the TV off. Maybe it only starts with an hour or so a week. Maybe you can only find 30 minutes. Whatever the starting point is, start! Learn to unplug a bit. Build up to longer amounts of time as you go. Developing a rhythm of Sabbath in your life is a lot like developing healthy habits of exercise. It takes time and intentionality. Don’t fill your Sabbath time with activities that are just different from your normal work time. Spend time with family and no devices. Take a walk, a long walk. Be with friends without an agenda. Discover what best refuels you spiritually and do that without apology.
Reduce the Noise
Don’t think you have “noise” in your everyday life? How about this? Take a day and count every single notification that shows up on your phone, or device. How many apps have notifications turned on and bombard your day with ding after ding after ding. That doesn’t have to be an audible ding either. The buzz buzz is just as distracting. Once you have counted the number of notifications, take notice of how you respond to each one. How do they make you feel? Do you automatically want to see what it is? Eventually all the dings and buzzes take a pseudo control over your life. You become addicted to it. Reduce the noise in your life. Turn off notifications for everything non-essential. And what is actually essential in our life is a far shorter list than you think. Consider removing all social media from your phone or device. Maybe it is just for a period of time, but the reduction of noise in your life may just lead you to leave it all off.
Get Outside of Your World
No, don’t go to space, or Mars. You have a world. A smaller subset of the greater world around you. It is the neighborhood, community, church, workplace, and places you typically visit. It is your bubble. Get outside of it. You don’t have to take a mission trip to Africa. Find a place to serve a few hours a month that will give you a realistic picture of what other people are experiencing. Serve where you will feel discomfort. Go with an open heart and mind. Realize that not everything works the way you think it works. Meet different people. Learn new things. It doesn’t have to be a weekly thing, or even a monthly thing. Make the effort to spend time outside of your bubble twice in the upcoming year. Just two times. That’s it. However God leads you from there follow Him.
It is that time of year again. Rather than making a resolution you don’t intend to really keep, make one that will create a lasting difference. Be resolved to be different this year. And help spur hope in the world.