New Year's Resolutions

Do your New Year’s Resolutions include a concerted effort at decluttering, cleaning, and maintenance?  This morning, I picked up a shirt and threw it into the laundry basket.  Resolution complete.

Our physical and mental wellbeing means we have to clean the tub in the bathroom, dust the tables in the living room, and undercoat our cars to prevent rust.  Healthy living, spiritually, means we must take on the task to declutter, clean, and maintain the processes of our mind - what we believe about God and His created order (aka, the world in which we live).   The problem with “think”-cleaning is that we can quickly become familiar with the truths that are intended to transform us.  This familiarity can desensitize us to how radical the truths of God’s Kingdom are.   However, if we discipline ourselves to pause and reflect on their depth and uniqueness, these truths will refresh and renew our minds (2 Cor. 10:6;  Rom. 12:1-3).

Here are four truths that are either clichés or cleansers - it depends on how we process them.  Three of these come from email closings that my friends use regularly - except the third one.  You may recognize its source ;-).  These are profound truths, simply stated and far from being simplistic.  Let’s think about these:

1.  God is in control.  This was the focal point of our gathering yesterday - God IS in control, but what does that mean?  As we saw in the stories of Joseph and Esther, God’s purposes are often (usually!) accomplished through hidden and subtle means using all kinds of people in all their brokenness.  Then, sometimes, the light comes on and there is a realization that all the “stuff” of life has been of divine intention:  “You meant it for evil; God meant it for good” (Gen. 50:20), and “For such a time as this” (Est. 4:14).  

2.  In the grip of His grace.  I love this image.  We often think of God’s grace as being His gentle touch in our lives helping to heal our brokenness and smooth over life’s rough edges.  If theology were YouTube or TikTok, many think of grace as a playlist of cat videos.  It is an unfortunate stereotype.  God’s grace is more like a “grip;” strong, sure, stable.  I remember my dad teaching me to use a handsaw.  I could feel his callouses and was amazed at the power of his arm and control over the saw.  It overwhelmed my small, childish abilities.  It was no fuzzy kitten.  God’s grace grips us;  it doesn’t tickle us.

3.  TINO - There is no other.  This is Moses’ counsel to the Hebrews as they are about to enter the land God promised to Abraham.  Moses warns them that they will be faced with all kinds of realities that will challenge their faith - they will live in houses they didn’t build and reap from vineyards they didn’t plant;  they will be exposed to new systems of belief and new ideas about god(s);  they will experience prosperity previously unknown.  The strategy to keep all this in its proper context, Moses says, is to remember that God is the Creator of heaven above and the earth below.  There Is No Other.  Don’t be distracted by what seems to “work” or is convenient.  Honour and serve only the one true Creator God.

4.  Keep looking up.  This byline originates with my fellow pastor, Jim Allen.  In many ways, it encapsulates all three of the previous statements.  When we are intentional to “look up,” we are reminded of God’s sovereignty, His grace, and His one-and-only status as the Almighty Creator God.  It conveys a message of hope - “Up there, His will is done (and as it will be someday on earth).”  It gives us perspective and context- eternity is a lot bigger than the here and now.  “Up there” is the throne of grace which we may approach with absolute confidence.  From “up there,” His eye is on the sparrow “down here.”

Allow me to repeat this caveat:  these are not words of enchantment.  We don’t recite these words to enter a meditative state of super-spirituality.  We cannot afford to reduce them to clichés.  These important words are impactful only when we use them to remind ourselves of the foundational truths which they summarize.  

Like any housekeeping or car maintenance duty, that demands time, energy, and intentionality.  But the benefits are amazing.  The goal is not the simple “tidiness” of our ideas, but the transformation of our hearts and minds.  No matter how we are starting 2025, because we are in the grip of His grace, we know God - an there is no other - is in control.  So, keep looking up!