"What Changes This Year?"

The New Year brings a sense of hope, feeling as if you have a new beginning. You think to yourself, “Yep, this is the year I will get my life back in order. First things first – starting tomorrow, I will get up at the crack of dawn and run five miles. I will do this everyday! Hun! Don't laugh, I am! Next I will get my finances in order so that maybe later in the year I can travel and see the world’s largest toilet” (everyone’s dream vacation!). “Let's see…ah yes, I will also learn a new language. Perhaps French. Since my wife is fluent she would love that. Let's see what my wife's French book says. What can I say that will impress her? Perhaps, ‘Comment allez-vous, qui a du'n face comme du'n cheval?’ Yeah that’s it! She'll certainly be swooning after that. New Year, here I come!”

Ah yes, we all seem to be very ambitious when we make our New Years resolutions. Yet, just as this poor sap will find out, it is very hard to keep them.

Let’s see how our friend is doing. The next morning when he wakes up he goes outside to greet the frozen tundra. Realizing that his short shorts and hot pink tank-top will not do, he breaks out the sweats and hoodie. What he also failed to remember is that the furthest distance he has walked in the last five years is from his driveway to his kitchen. After an eighth of a mile his legs cramp up and he keels over. His ribs feel like someone has beaten him senseless. He thinks to himself, “you know what? Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.”

The next day he tries resolution number two. He really hadn’t kept up with the finances so there were lots of strange expenses that he wasn't aware of. Apparently, this past year, his family subscribed to 50 different magazines and purchased memberships to 10 area gyms. It also seems as if he is a “Quilt Lovers Anonymous” platinum member. Geez, it seems that our friend has an unscalable mountain of debt to overcome.

He decides to put the finances aside for a moment and approaches wife who is putting frosting on a cake. He looks adoringly in her eyes and says, “Comment allez-vous, qui a du'n face comme du'n cheval?” His wife looks at him with disgust, takes the cake and slams it into his face. She storms off, snorting in French, “Tu es completement débile,” which means, “You're a complete moron.” Apparently he had failed to see that his wife's French book was a book of funny French insults. He asked her, “How are you who has a face like a horse?” Not exactly what you tell her wife when you want to make her swoon. After committing a trifecta of failure, he sits down in his Lazy-Boy and turns on the tube.

How often have you tried to make a fresh start after the first of the year only to find yourself utterly defeated? But wait a minute. If you think about it, isn’t this the lot of the Christian? It often seems as thought, at every turn, our efforts are confounded or our plans fall through. We’re all too familiar with Murphy’s Law. The Psalmist shared his anguish with God in Psalm 72:12-14 when he said,

This is what the wicked are like always free of care, they go on amassing wealth. Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence.  All day long I have been afflicted,  and every morning brings new punishments.

You may be asking yourself, “Why do I even bother?” But cheer up. Though in this life we’re guaranteed hardships, we know that whatever happens is developing in us the character of Christ. Paul, in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 says,

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Let's revisit our frustrated friend and see how he is doing. It seems that a half hour or so after he sat himself dejectedly in front of the TV, his wife, realizing that his insult in French was unintentional, came in and baked another cake to replace the one she plastered his face with. She lovingly served him a huge slice with an ice-cold glass of milk, mmmmmm! Shortly thereafter, he received a call from someone at Publisher’s Clearing House. It seems he is the winner of the million-dollar jackpot. In pure excitement he jumped out of the chair and decided he would give the five-mile jog another try. He dashed out of doors and started to run his marathon. About a quarter of a mile into the run he twists his ankle and falls on his face. Strangely, he is laughing. He thinks to himself, “Shall I accept good from God, but not trouble?” Seeing his blunder his wife goes outside and lovingly helps him back in the house. Is he victorious or defeated? For the Christian it is both. When you fail to live up to your New Year's resolution maybe God is working out His resolution in you.

- Jordan McGehee