"Being Intentional about a new year"

As we approach the turning of the year we often prepare to make our resolutions for “new year living.” Beneficially, for Christians it comes during the season of Advent where we prepare our hearts and minds to receive God’s coming. It is a time for us to “put our house in order,” get our ethical life in line with our faith life. Despite the occasional Christmas party which seems to require us to indulge in overdoing in abundance, we need to prepare to launch ourselves into a new year, a year of living out our vocation as Christians in a way we have not done before. How can we prepare for the launch-- at T minus 19 and counting?

First, this is a time to examine the foundation of our life. What are the principles upon which we live? Are we solidly based on following Christ’s teaching of “loving God with our whole heart, soul, and mind and loving our neighbor as ourselves?” What are our goals for right living? Are we doing it in order to “earn brownie points with God” or do we sincerely believe it is our response to what God has done out of His grace for us? In our love for neighbor do we mean all neighbors or only those we like or can tolerate as long as they agree with us? Certainly these principles have been tried in the last couple of months, with so much polarization. Maybe our personal goal should be to “love our enemy, identifying that as the one who is on the other side from us.”

Second, Advent preparation for a new year is a time to examine our lifestyle. In seminary I took an ethics class from Dr. Jim Burtness who introduce me to the “Sermon on the Mount” as lifestyle, but not law. It is a design or pattern for lived faith. Think of this in relationship to our pattern of life for today. Try as we might to be intentional about the way in which we live our lives, it is difficult to follow the lifestyle Jesus lays out in Matthew 5-7. If we have two coats, give one away. I am attached to my second and third and fourth coats which I seldom wear but cannot give up. Maybe I can give a couple of those away in the new year? Or what right minded NFL or college football fan can “turn the other cheek” when they go outside to see the fan of the team that just beat you rubbing it in? Maybe I can hug a Bear fan or a Viking fan. Jesus’ intensification of all of the commandments, making them harder to follow and not easier just doesn’t cut it for most of us today. Ironically, the one remember most relates to a president—no not the newly elected president. Jesus proclaimed, "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Living in what seems to be on the other side of a paradigm President Jimmy Carter once responded to a question about the sixth commandment by saying, “according to Jesus I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times.” Each one of these sayings by Jesus makes it possible for us to look into the mirror, but leads us ultimately back to God asking for His forgiveness. Examining our lifestyle will likely drive us to the Cross asking for forgiveness as well. Repentance anyone?

Finally, as we prepare for the turning of the calendar what specific objectives do we have for living out our faith in 2017? Is it the time for us to consider our legacy for those who come after us—or do we just want to spend everything we have on ourselves? Do we want to concentrate on vocations or relationships that we have not attended to very well in 2016 or before? How can I be a better father or mother, brother or sister, volunteer in the community, friend to friends I have taken for granted? Do we have goals for growing in the fruits of our faith for the new year? How can we become more loving, more joyful, more peaceful, more patient, kinder, lead a better life, more faithful, gentler, have more self-control in 2017—and how can I measure it?

I don’t want to be a killjoy for closing out 2016. We need to celebrate-- our lives, our families, and Christ’s coming into the world. But let us not lose sight of the opportunity we have to be more kind and more giving as we turn the page on 2016 to 2017. As Charles Dickens once pointed out through the spirit of Christmas changing Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, let it be said of us: “He or she was kinder and more generous than ever before.”