New Year Resolutions

Every year, we hear about people making New Year Resolutions. They are going to lose weight, go on a diet, and visit the gym more often. And every year, by the end of January, most of those rather self-centered resolutions are broken—so much so that the whole concept of New Year Resolutions has become little more than a joke.

And yet, there is one New Year Resolution that I think it is highly worth making, and it comes in the form of a Facebook post that I’ve seen from a number of friends, linking it to the whole celebration of Christmas. It is a quote from Howard Thurman, an African American preacher and early civil rights leader. “When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and the princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flocks, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace on earth, to make music in the heart.”

This past year, Christians have left a lot of people scratching their heads, wondering what we believe, what we value, as they have watched the news coverage of TV preachers and megachurch pastors. And yet, it seems to me that Christians like us have been remarkably consistent. In season and out, we have quietly been doing the work of Christmas, as Dr. Thurman defined it, and if you want to join us in that work this year—if you want this to be your New Year Resolution, we would love to welcome you and to help you actually to turn your New Year Resolution from joke into reality.

--Pastor Don Steele