Our pastor started the year out with a bang. Actually, it started with Stevie Wonder’s Higher Ground featuring an incredible sax solo (awesome!), but I digress. He began talking about New Year’s resolutions, the requisite first homily for most churches in January, I suppose. But in typical Andy Stanley fashion, he spun out a thought that woke up my brain, and I as shook out the cobwebs of resolutions past, a picture started to form in it’s place.
He asked us to think not about what we do, but who we are in relation to plans for the year. Meaning that instead of focusing on what our accomplishments are (top sales, cleanest house, best budget, etc..), what really matters is the character that we define ourselves by. Everyone is going to be “something” this year, good or bad, so why not choose wisely in how you want to be defined personally? Honest, selfish, educated, fair, judgemental, sneaky, the list of possible attributes is long and verbose. It definitely gave me food for thought.
For me, defining who I want to be remembered as will probably take me much longer than twelve calendar months. It may actually take me a lifetime to figure it out, to be honest. In a culture so driven by recognition and accomplishment being measured by what we have, I think we have lost sight of the value of character (paging Tiger Woods). The root word of resolution is resolute. The meaning of this being “steadfast, unshakable and determined”. Although I won’t have a list of resolutions this year to define my life, I hope that the characteristics of resolute describe me at my best in the year ahead.
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