Five Thoughts About New Mercies And New Year’s Resolutions

When I am at my best, I make one resolution, “Take the time to acknowledge those new mercies every single day.”

We have reached year-end once more. And once more, it has been a tough year for many of the people I love and for the billions whose lives are remote from mine. In our connected world, their suffering and pain affect me as well.

Like many, I want for next year to be better. And so, I clean out closets and drawers, discard neglected emails, and toss unwanted stuff. I resolve to do better, to write more, to waste less time, to finally get fit (ha!!).

Yes, it does seem the ideal time for a “do-over,” that oft-repeated phrase that floats above many children’s games.

But most resolutions fail within a few weeks, if not in a few hours. We cannot reinvent ourselves like this. However, there is a doable option.

One of my favorite scriptures is Lamentations 3:22-23. In these holy and hopeful words, I read that God’s mercies “are new every morning.”

So when I am at my best, I make one resolution, “Take the time to acknowledge those new mercies every single day.” Over the years, I’ve learned that rejoicing each morning in this newness of the Presence of God is a far more critical task than “make myself better than ever” type resolutions, especially the “exercise more and lose weight” ones.

But, like all resolutions, we also quickly fail at this one. Here are five reasons why.

Five Practices That Block New Mercies

Number one: We look for the strings or unexpressed expectations when receiving a gift.

This attitude removes any hope of heartfelt thankfulness and blinds us to grace. Learn to receive the gifts given by God and others with thankfulness and without suspicion. Should there be a string attached, that is the giver’s problem, not yours, not mine.

Receive simply. Give simply.

Number two: We let others make our important decisions.

Too often, I hear phrases that sound something like, “I can’t do that [be obedient to God, be truthful, live generously, say a strong “no” to injustice, etc.] because someone else will [not like it, get mad at me, not respond the way I want them to, etc.].”  Those words indicate that others make vital choices for us. Using them gives leeway to compromise our own choices, ultimately leading to spiritual death.

Instead, reject these death decisions. Choose life. Own your soul and your actions. Blame no one.

Number three: We seek security instead of holiness.

We look for our security in all sorts of human institutions, including church, family, economics and politics. But we will not find it in those places or anywhere else. When the primary driver of life is to be secure, we immediately move to the worship of money and things. We then become resistant to God, to change and to the needs of others. Fear shuts us down.

Stop chasing security. Start chasing holiness.

Number four: Our insistence that we are the center of the universe and what happens to us is more important than what happens to others.

We buy into the fallacy that God stands ready to do our bidding. Therefore we get to order God around. We really need to understand this one: God is not our celestial vending machine or Santa in another form. Those attitudes are appropriate only for the most immature, not for mature adults.

Stop living like the world revolves around you. It doesn’t. It never will.

Number five: Holding onto the fallacy that if we understand enough about why something happens, we can find meaning in random events.

It simply is not true. I’m not saying we should relinquish intellectual curiosity or scientific endeavor, but recognize that there will always be a mystery far beyond our collective comprehension.

Learn to appreciate the wildness of mystery rather than insisting on domesticating or taming it. We cannot tame the world any more than we can tame the endless ocean waves; we can only learn to ride them, knowing that at some point, we will be knocked over.

The choice to seek new mercies rather than new resolutions is immensely freeing. Try it. The lightness of being will fill you with true joy.