As we approach the end of another year, let us rejoice in this...WE MADE IT!!! For all of you, like me, that have been unconsciously holding your breath, at midnight we can exhale!! We will close the door on the trials and pain of 2012 and welcome in a breath of hope that this year "things" will be different!! Don't we do this, set so much hope and unrealistic expectation on the approaching new year, that it is impossible to ever feel that at the close of a year our expectations have been met?
Resolutions?! I always laugh when I hear someone talking about the resolutions that they are making for the new year. I too had succumbed to the annual pressure of making my list of resolutions! It wasn't until I hit my mid thirties that I gave up on making resolutions. By this point in my life, I realized the list was less probable in completing than winning the Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes! Let's face it the 20 pounds I want to lose this year, is not going to go away by someone knocking on my door and demanding it back! Nor can I expect that a prominent publishing company will knock on my door and offer me a substantial amount of money to write a new series of books for them. You see the word resolution requires resolve. One of the definitions I found in Merriam Webster's is "to reach a firm decision about."
A Firm Decision!! You see this is where the truth of my inadequacies come into play. This is the missing link to my inability to complete my list of resolutions. In order to resolve something in my life it requires me to make a firm decision to do it! I can want to lose 20 pounds but in I don't RESOLVE to turn off the and MAKE A FIRM DECISION to get up and go for a walk I will continue adding on pounds to add to next years list. What does it mean to make a FIRM DECISION to do something?
Birth Pains!! For anyone that has ever experienced the birth of a child either your own or someone else's there is one common thread... that when the time comes to give birth the person is going to RESOLVE (or MAKE A FIRM DECISION) to PUSH!!! There will be no complacency, no wishy washy decision making,or waiting until maybe another time. It is not something they will put on the list of things to do next year. When the pain comes you have no other choice then to push!!! In order for a new life to come forth it will require two things: the pain and the resolve to make the pain go away! Of course when the child arrives, the pain goes away and is soon forgotten and joy rightfully takes it's place.
New Life!! This is the problem with our "resolutions" our wanting "things" to change in the upcoming year. We can do nothing in the new year with the same attitude that we have at the close of this year. You can want your marriage to change, your child to be free from addiction, your finances to be secure, in need of a job, a home or a miracle.You may be feeling the pain in one or several areas of your life right now just as I am. However, if you don't allow that pain to motivate you to MAKE A FIRM DECISION to PUSH until new life is birthed then it will be just another disappointing year of immobility; stuck in the same place.
Living Example- As I write these words I try to imagine what it was like that day when Jesus found himself in the garden pleading for his life. Jesus was about to go to the cross to die for all of humanity. In prayer that day, he asked his Father- God to take away this painful death he was about to endure. "Isn't there any other way"? When Jesus realized that He was the ONLY WAY. He replied "not my will but your will be done". He resolved to do what needed to be done to change the course of history forever. He wanted to see his people free and the only road to freedom was found on the path that led to the cross. He RESOLVED to do this, he MADE A FIRM DECISION to go of his own free will. The road was hard for him to walk. He felt so alone. He felt abandoned by those that loved him. It was not the popular way. It was not the easy way. It was not the less painful way. He felt the pain of the people and he pushed through his own agenda, his own comfort, his own agony in order to set us free.
The Resolve- This year has been a difficult year for me and my family. We have experienced pain in every area of our life. There has been no stone left unturned, health, finances, heartache, rejection, loneliness, loss and fear. Yet, I make no "new years resolutions" instead I resolve to MAKE A FIRM DECISION that the pain will not consume me. Even through tears I will rejoice in the pain because I know that before the birth of all new things pain must come. Like a woman in labor, I will allow the pain to be the catalyst that drives me into a deeper relationship with God. Like Jesus, the answer may not always be the one I want to hear, but I know that with Him I can walk in the path of the cross set before me and trust that I will not walk alone.
And Neither Will You.
