Skip to main content

Resolution for 2020

Do you remember your resolutions for 2019? For those who do, how did you do with them?

Here's one for 2020 you might consider. It's simple, but can be hard, complicated, and frustrating. I suppose any attempt to modify our behaviors or ourselves can be those things. This one though you don't have to set time apart for, it doesn't create another bill, and doesn't require sweating or giving up ice cream.

This year, become love. You might start off by figuring out what love might do in this moment or for someone. Ask yourself, "what would a loving me do..." in the next five minutes, or for the person next to me, or in anticipation of some event.

You might write a reminder at the top of your calendar or journal, or set a reminder in your phone just to prod you to ask yourself that question at sometime during the day. You might, but you don't have to, start your day by anticipating when and where that day you can be love. Conversely, at the end of the day, review where you were loving that day, or maybe where you missed an opportunity. This last, not to beat yourself up; just acknowledge. This is more about becoming aware of what opportunities might look like rather than keeping score. Love doesn't keep score.

About keeping score, when you miss a day of anticipation or review, or of writing or heeding the reminder to love on some day, don't sweat it. Just start where you are. This isn't about perfection; it's about becoming.

One other observation. As you become Love, you will become grateful, patient, kind, gentle, generous, and calm. When those begin to show up, all those other resolutions you were considering become easier because you are more aware of reality, of what's important, of the best way to live.

As you consider resolutions for next year, put this one on the list and live into it. You will have more joy and the world - at least the corner you impact - will be a better place.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

He Remembers We Are But Flesh

In Job, often considered the first book written in the Bible, we are introduced to the accuser. In the introduction to the book, it is the accuser who accuses Job of being righteous and faithful to God only because of the blessings that God has given Job. We find the accuser again in Zechariah 3. The High Priest Joshua is standing in front of the Lord in filthy clothes, and the accuser is making accusations. The Lord rebukes the accuser and then says that he will cleanse Joshua.  Then in the New Testament, we see the appearance of the Advocate. The Spirit, we are told, is sent to walk beside us, to be a witness, to be an advocate for us. The accuser challenges us, questions our faithfulness, and questions our integrity as people who are supposed to follow God as His people, His disciples. This is an entre for being blamed and shamed. But God comes alongside us and advocates for us. We are told too that Jesus is our mediator with God. Jesus defends us and explains us to God so that ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Elders redux

A reader (I am always amazed that people actually read this blog) submitted a rather long comment on the original post on Elders. It is apparent that the reader did some good homework as the comment has several, well, more than several, reference citations. It is clear that they both read the original post and did some Bible study before posting their comment. Because the comment was so long, I thought it appropriate to post another entry rather than bury the response in the comment log. In the following discussion, I have included the text of the comment without the Scripture references. If you want to read the comment in its entirety, scroll to the Elders post and click on the comment. --------------------------------------------------------- [Comment~~~~The church is expected to be a people in exactly this sense. We are the people of God who are charged with continuing and preserving the values, culture, hopes, and the identity of God’s people in our time.~~~~ Does this include th...
7 comments
Read more

Remember You Were Slaves

In his essay "Mishpatim: Healing the Heart of Darkness*," Jonathan Sacks makes the argument that tribalism can, and usually does, give rise to acceptance, compassion, and social bonding but also to fear, hate, and demeaning others. Those in our group give and receive the former from us, those outside our group receive and often give the latter. We humans have the capacity of empathy toward those like us but we also, being finite beings, suffer from fear and that fear too often translates to hate of those not like us.  Sacks then reminds us that Israel was told not to hate the outsider, the one who isn't in our group. He quotes two passages from Exodus: "You must not mistreat or oppress the stranger in any way. Remember, you yourselves were once strangers in the land of Egypt." (22.21) "You must not oppress strangers. You know what it feels like to be a stranger, for you yourselves were once strangers in the land of Egypt." (23.9) Sacks then...
Post a Comment
Read more