This is the time of year that we are all drawn into the looking back and looking ahead. We fill up lists with to do's and wishes and wants and call them resolutions. We come up with these resolutions by sifting over the last year and scouring over all the things we didn't like in our lives. Then we go about making our magic plan to make it over anew in the the next 365 days.
The cast of a calendar year is so completely arbitrary. We could, and often do, measure not from January first to December last, but instead from birthday to birthday, or anniversary to anniversary or even school year to school year.
It's silly my friends.
A life is not measured in a mere handful of days, months or minutes.
And isn't that what we're trying to do with all these resolutions anyway? Aren't we really trying to make something out of ourselves that will count and be memorable? Aren't we just trying to figure out the secret formula for leaving a legacy?
There has to be more to your life than loosing 20 pounds in a years time or reading 99 books by a certain date. More to it all than learning water color painting or finishing a scrapbook. More than completing a marathon or seeing you name in lights.
More.
But what then.
It's this.
The single greatest command we're given, love one another.
Not just those we really like to love, or the ones we select to love, but everyone. All.
It's not easy. Those of us who try to do this, we fail. Over and over and over again, we fail. Then we try again because we know how He loves us.
So if loosing 20 pounds in a certain time frame helps you to love others, get on with it. If it's reading books or marathon running or being famous, so be it. But while you're busy pursuing all of that remember that it isn't about the end. This is where you are to say it's about the journey, but it isn't that either. It's about all the people on the journey.
Are you trampling them to get to your prize or are you gathering them and taking them along with you on a journey that will never end?
**As a side note, I am so often completely surprised by the words that blink onto the screen before me as I sit down to type. This was not at all what I intended to write about this evening.**
3 comments:
Very good reminder. I will totally use that as I think about the new year and what I hope to accomplish. I am reading a great book about change which has my thoughts really swirling.
Yep, you are right. That's why I haven't done any New Year's resolution in a very long time. I just don't succeed in them. The idea of loving others is perfect.
:)
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