Today, you are either starting New Year’s resolutions, or your Christmas exercise equipment is already an extension of your closet complete with clothes, hangers, and accessories. Certainly, I hope it is the former outcome.
If you are like me, I am often amazed at those individuals, however few they may be, who do keep to a regiment that enhances their life, their health, and their well-being. It is difficult to maintain the discipline necessary to change one’s future. In fact, it may be easier to take an unusual approach to resolutions like the humorous, “My New Year’s resolution is to help all my friends gain ten pounds, so I look skinnier.” Now this is a resolution I could get behind.
Spiritual resolutions face the same achievement challenges as physical ones; we may start with the best intentions only to fail in the long run. Perhaps, you have experienced this, too.
An adherent of the Christian faith may resolve to read the bible daily, keep a spiritual journal, pray consistently and often, assist others without an agenda beyond altruism, and so forth. Then, life presses in and overwhelms our commitment to expressive faith. Like exercise, we may miss a day of prayer at first, followed by an absence at bible study group, then skip an opportunity to serve someone else. It happens all the time even to the most sincere and dedicated souls.
Fortunately, we can change over time even if it is incremental. Idiomatically, it is two steps forward, and one step backwards if we take the long view and stay the course. The theological term for this continuing spiritual growth is sanctification—the process by which we increasingly become holier, more moral, more ethical, and more altruistic.
The good news is, much of what we hope to achieve in our spiritual life is a matter of governing our thoughts and directing them toward positive action. For example, perhaps you would like to be viewed as a quality employee. You determine in your mind that, regardless of the work, you will do the tasks to the best of your ability. The thinking may be, “If I am to do this thing, it is deserving of my best as the effort is a reflection of what I value.” This mindset has the potential to carry over into relationships, stewardship of resources, benevolence toward others, and much more.
One of the teachings of the bible that is clear is that adherents are expected to be ambassadors for the faith. When one commits to an orthodoxy such as is found in Christianity, the expectation is that the necessary dedication and discipline will be evident through one’s works and words. In a sense, it is much like joining an organization like the Elks, Rotary, Soroptimists, or being a part of a team such as softball, bowling, or basketball. Of course, the spiritual nature of a person is on a level by itself.
So, whether it is the exercise bike or the bible, now is not the time to give-up. Certainly, for the spiritual person, too much is riding on it.
Kent Simmons is the pastor of Canyon Community Church in Kingman, AZ.
