To Joy!

We can't change other people, but we can change ourselves. I've heard that many times over the course of my life. I think it's true.

The new year is a great time to think about how we want to change. What is our motivation? Will our resolutions take on lives of their own and remain with us or will they turn into just another broken promise to ourselves? That may depend less on how strong our resolve is and more on what it is we resolve to do.

For example, you can forget yours truly giving up all sugar. Ain't gonna happen. And I'll not be jogging 5 miles a day either. A more workable goal might be to take 30 minutes each day to concentrate on how I can make my body as healthy as is reasonably possible on that day. One day at a time sounds much better than struggling to meet some lofty goal.

Spiritually, I think we can say the same thing. Christians believe that salvation is a done deal. That eliminates constantly judging ourselves and others in order to assure our status in God's Kingdom. We have that invitation in our hands already and our nametags on the banquet table are written in permanent ink. The idea is not to create status for ourselves in heaven, but to respond to that invitation, to live joyfully in anticipation of it.

So what is there to do?

I can't earn my place with God. But I can, day by day, become more and more aware of it. I can consider how to make each day a living prayer. I can stay in this moment and lift it up to God for a blessing I know I have already received.

Perhaps a lofty spiritual goal is just as silly for us to make as a lofty health goal. But if our goal is simply to be still and know that God has already provided what we need, we might get somewhere. Here's to a new year that is filled with small triumphs, tiny moments of beauty that can appear even in the deepest sorrow. Here's to remembering that it all belongs to God. Here's to joy!

#joy #resolutions