Submitted by: Nostalgia John(291) Nostalgia John Log in to become a member of Nostalgia John's Fan Club!
If there is a three word phrase synonymous with the three word phrase "Best of intentions" it is probably "New Year’s Resolutions"
People who make New Years Resolutions are certainly more admirable than those who merely use the holiday as an excuse for excess drinking and littering the neighborhood with "buy 1 get 12 free" fireworks casings.
But there are three misconceptions underlying the practice which need to be understood and overcome before it makes much sense to resolve at all.
MISCONCEPTION ONE
THE TIME MACHINE
On New Years Day of 2007, having been conceived September 4, 1946 or thereabouts, I had cumbered the earth in the womb and independently a combined 22,397 days. Everything I have done in the past is in the record books.
How would the New Years’ resolutions I make-even if kept well------change any of that.
What math or logic is it that would makes me think that 365 days looking forward erases or negates or balances 20,000 plus?
When I can’t sleep, I have this fantasy where I go back in time. I either locate myself or meet myself to give advice or juggle events so that one of the negative events of my life doesn’t happen. I then project my life from that point forward.
I find my current life’s work/profession as a teenager {instead of at age 54}.
I WOW teachers and classmates with brilliance in places that I actually was a dunderhead.
I even date cheerleaders instead of the unpopular girls that equated to my being an even less popular boy. Don’t tell my wife.
But its’ fantasy. There IS NO time travel. There is no rewrite of the script except in my imagination.
Once more, to sue a common subject for resolutions, I started smoking in early High School. I quit cold turkey September 21, 1972. The 34 years I haven’t smoked anymore are effective for the 34 years since I quit, not the 45 years dating back to when I started. If I did something to my system or my "wind" back then, I haven’t aggravated it. I may have reversed what might have happened had I not quit. BUT I haven’t eliminated the 11 years.
MISCONCEPTION NUMBER ONE IS THE TIME MACHINE: I CAN RECONSTRUCT THE PAST WITH THE FUTURE
The REVISED resolution which this realization should bring me to is something even bigger than addressing a specific bad habit or neglect of good.
I HEREBY RESOLVE TO LIVE EVERY HOUR OF 2007 IN THE REALIZATION THAT I WILL NEVER GET TO LIVE IT AGAIN AND THAT WHAT I DO OR DON’T DO IS PERMANENT HISTORY.
MISCONCEPTION TWO
THE CRIME MACHINE
Meet Guglielmo. Guglielmo has a concept of himself. We’ll call that the Guglielmo he wants to be. On New Year’s day the Guglielmo he wants to be is going to grab the Guglielmo that IS by the throat and-thru sheer willpower-make him different.
Guglielmo is going to take charge. Trouble is-Guglielmo has been in charge all along. 80-90% of New Years’ resolutions join the gazillions of others that have failed for precisely this reason. His ‘crimes’ are of his own making.
Guglielmo thinks that the Guglielmo who broke all his resolutions in 2006 and 2005 and 2004 and 1993 and 1982 and 1971 and 1960 and all the other years is going to succeed anyway. He will do so by the same methods and under the control of the same guy that failed all the other times.
See, Gug has been King and Lord and dictator of his own life from the get go. He has proven to be an abundant source of failure for good and volume of bad.
So now he is going to reverse all that by being even more stubbornly the King, Lord and dictator?! What he really needs is a new strategy run by a new King. Bible believers know who that is.
I HEREBY RESOLVE-NO I DON’T-I HEREBY ADMIT I’VE BEEN THE CRIME MACHINE AND I SURRENDER.
MISCONCEPTION THREE
THE PRIME MACHINE
MOST OF US EXPECT FAILURE IN THIS RESOLUTION RITUAL. WHY?
In the obscure and difficult book of the Old Testament-Zechariah-there is a vision. God’s people of the day were being very sinful, partly because of plain old wickedness but also partly because they felt their failures resulted in God giving up on them.
The prevailing idea [which is far more common than we’d like to admit] was: "Hey we can’t enjoy God’s smile, we can’t enjoy holiness, so we may as well enjoy what we can of the sin."
In the vision the devil is right there to reinforce the idea. The symbolism has to do with filthy garments that an individual character is dressed in.
The devil rightly accuses the guy: You can’t stand before God in those garments!!
But, God rebuking the fiend, comes and puts festal garments on the man.
All of this is symbolic of the fact that God’s program is "Justification By An Imputed Righteousness".
We do not prepare ourselves to please Him. God prepared Christ and describes Him in Colossians as the pre-eminent one of all creation, the Prime One.
Prime usually means first in sequence. It always means first in magnitude and first in cause order.
God prepares us in the "garments" of Christ’s righteousness and sees us in HIM.
New Years Resolutions usually concern being able to perform some righteousnesses or to avoid some unrighteousnesses as if we were "prime" instead of reflective.
The theological truth is that neither can be accomplished by rebellious mankind until properly attired.
The simple non-theological application is that you are probably resolving things that you are not equipped to carry out. So, instead of resolving to do this or that as if I had the power or to avoid that or this as if I had the strength….
I HEREBY RESOLVE TO ALLOW MYSELF TO BE TRANSFORMED INTO SOMEONE WHO IS EQUIPPED TO RESOLVE
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