New Year's Resolutions

Artwork by Rhonna Farrer

With a new year starting shortly, it is a time to reflect upon the past year and a time to make decisions for the up coming year. Some people call this "Making a New Year's Resolution."

There is just something about the start of a new year that gives us the feeling of a fresh start and a new beginning. Yet we take it so lightly. Many of us have regrets of unfulfilled resolutions of the past. Many of us make airy fairy wishes on what we wish we could change. Maybe we say we will eat healthier and exercise more.  I know I have made these mostly empty pledges and I relish the opportunity to make a fresh start with great enthusiasm.

1 Timothy 4:8 instructs us to keep exercise in perspective: “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”

The motivation behind the resolutions are important too. There's no point in reading the Bible through in one year if you do not heed the words you read or donating a million dollars to some charity, if you just wanted to make a name for yourself. You have probably heard the expression 'Do not let your right hand know what the left hand is doing!' Do it out of love, care and compassion without others necessarily knowing you did it.

Great thoughts are commendable, but to make real changes means we need to put our thoughts into action. If we don't make any real changes to our lives then we will greet the next new year with the same broken resolutions and have wasted an opportunity that may never come back. Some things may require the help of a friend or supporter, maybe even a professional guide or mentor might be the impetus we need to make real changes in our lives and keep us accountable.

Tribute to Arthur Stace's Eternity Sydney NYE 1999

We need to think about where and what effort we need to put into practice the things we wish to change. However before we do this, consider for what purpose are we making the change. Whom will it benefit?

We live in a very selfish time, when we consider ourselves to be of utmost importance. You can't take material possessions with you when you die! So what sort of legacy are you really leaving behind? Will you be remembered for the hours you dedicated to your work or even your fitness level.Though we are encouraged to make the most of every opportunity to care for our bodies and work for our bosses, there needs to be balance.

Will you be remembered for the holiday you took around the Greek Islands or the trek up to the top of your country. I would much rather be remembered for spending some time walking & talking with my kids and grand kids in the local park. Think back on your fondest memories. Were they the big times or the rumbling on the bed on a Saturday morning bursting with the excitement of a day spent with someone close?

How do you want to be remembered? What will people say about you? Will they have been glad to have known you. What legacy will you leave behind?

I believe that there is a higher purpose to our lives and that when we die, we will spend eternity somewhere.

Sign seen at Sydney Town Hall

New Year's resolution

"I won't look back; God knows the fruitless efforts,

The wasted hours, the sinning, the regrets;

I'll leave them all with Him who blots the record,

And mercifully forgives and then forgets.

I won't look forward; God sees all the future,

The road that, short or long, will lead me home,

And He will face with me its every trial

And bear with me the burdens that may come.

But I'll look up into the face of Jesus,

For there my heart can rest, my fears are stilled;

And there is joy and love, and light for darkness,

And perfect peace, and every hope fulfilled."

-Annie Johnson Flint


Read more about Arthur Stace and his Eternity symbol here.