After years of making
New Years resolutions that always seem to melt away with the snow of winter,
maybe I’ll try something different this year.
How about this:
For 2018 I resolve
to become more stubborn, close-minded, and obsessive!
After all, I already have some talent in
these areas, plenty of experience, and I might as well build on my
strengths.
Besides, these aren’t
necessarily bad qualities; it’s just that we typically practice them in bad
ways.
In fact, I invite you to join me
in these resolutions.
Together we can
make 2018 a year of stubbornly close-minded obsessiveness.
Here’s what I mean.
Let’s be stubborn, but in the
right way. When we have a conflict
with another person, let’s stubbornly forgive and refuse to hold a grudge.
Let’s be stubborn about resolving the
conflict in healthy ways.
When we have
an illness, or find ourselves facing a stressful ordeal, let’s be stubborn
about fighting the illness and working through the ordeal with courage,
compassion, and determination.
Let’s be close-minded, but in
the right way. When life refuses to
live up to our expectations, let’s not be close-minded about the evidence.
Instead, let’s be close-minded in our refusal
to become unloving, or disrespectfully.
Let’s
be close-minded about listening to thee evidence and not our desires.
Instead of being close-mindedly inflexible,
let’s be close-minded about learning and growing.
Let’s be obsessive, but in the
right way. How easy it is to be obsessed with unimportant things, like the
dust in our house, while completely ignoring larger issues like the dust
gathering in our important relationships.
So let’s be obsessed with maintaining healthy relationships!
And instead of obsessing over buying that new
TV, car, or house, let’s obsess over spending our resources on things that
would make our world a better place.
Jesus invites us to
“…strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness…” (Matthew 6:33a NRSV). With the arrival of 2018, we have an
entire year ahead of us to do this very thing, while at the same time perfecting
those qualities in which we already excel.
Let’s make a New Years Resolution to work together in stubbornly, close-mindedly,
and obsessively striving first for God’s Kingdom!
Yours in Christ;
David Rockhill
