It is the eve of New Year’s Eve and oh my the resolutions. So many possibilities to be better! Will I resolve to eat better, sleep better, clean better, shop better, organize better, read better, work better, exercise better, or be on time better?
Instagram shouts at me to get those resolutions down on paper and hold myself accountable with a pretty planner because how else will I become better?!? I need a new year, the world tells me. Last year is so last year and now a new year is presenting itself with the sparkly promise of newness.
I love a new year. A new planner. A new, better promise to myself.
And yet, I’m quite sure God cares not an ounce. God does not care whether I eat exactly all the right green things, or that my house is picked up, or how many push-ups I can do. (Oh Lord, how I despise push-ups!) God created my body and clearly cares what I do with it, but God did not invent New Year’s resolutions. God is not a fan of the many ways a healthy personal challenge becomes a shame game. God does not desire clean homes or push-ups. We desire such things whenever we compare our own homes or bodies to someone else’s. Social media makes this temptation unbearable. It is impossible to avoid comparisons when we scroll through window displays of other people’s lives.
What does God desire from us? “The Lord has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness (or mercy), and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8).
There are no push-ups involved in justice, mercy, or humility! Although, when I try to do a push-up it is quite a humbling experience, actually. But it does no good for my neighbor. That’s the crux of the prophet Micah’s words. God desires that we look around, not to compare, but to spot injustice. God desires that we see our lives and our world from God’s angle of mercy. God asks that you be kind to yourself and to your neighbor. Even Micah’s verse can be turned into a “be better” New Year’s resolution if we are not kind to ourselves. We can put ourselves down for not doing enough for our neighbor and our world. I suspect that isn’t God’s desire for us, either.
And so, fellow human being, simply begin this day and in a couple of days begin a new year. The “be better” part has been accomplished for you in the death of the one who removed the impossible demand to “be better”. You need not “be better” if it means you can never “be better” enough. Forgiveness is stickier than a New Year’s resolution. And so much lovelier than push-ups.
Lisa Lewton 