This past week marked the end of one year and the beginning of a new one. One of the things that lots of people do at the start of a new year is make one or more resolutions about how they want to change their lives. People famously decide to get into shape at the new year. Just as famously, they say that gyms are only able to operate because of all the people who sign up and pay for a year’s membership and then stop coming after a few weeks.
In my own life, I can have moments where I feel overwhelmed and have a desire to do something drastic to solve a problem or achieve a goal. What complicates things is that the intense feelings I have in that moment don’t tend to last. Usually, if I am really worked up over something, it dies away within 48 hours. Sometimes, rarely, I can get into a negative spiral that can last longer than that, but it is usually gone within a week. I realize that some people face chronic depression that means their situation is more complicated than mine, but this is my experience and I suspect that it is not entirely unique. I have had to train myself not to make big decisions while I am worked up because the consequences of big decisions usually last longer than those feelings.
This is part of why new year’s resolutions so often fail. They are made in good faith. We really do intend to keep them. The problem is, when the gusto that made us want to do it in the first place fades and we are left with the hard work that needs to be sustained day in and day out, it becomes nearly impossible to keep it up. This only becomes more true the bigger the goal is.
I have made real change in my life in a few different areas, the most notable are in reading the Bible and in losing weight. I am increasingly convinced that, while God does sometimes transform people in a moment where they are never the same again, most change that lasts takes the form of small changes, sustained over time. Want to know the Bible and plant it deep in your heart. Don’t read twenty chapters a day. Read a few, then allow yourself to stop, and then do it again tomorrow, let yourself stop, and then do it the next day. The hard work is done by the time.
When I lost weight, I learned you can’t lose a lot of weight fast and, if you do, it is almost certain to come back. You have to commit to a small change but over a long time. If you can do that, it is amazing what you can achieve. I am in the middle of trying to build some muscle to help me thrive as I move more fully into middle age and beyond. I am trying to remind myself that all the wise people I have heard is that the real thing that makes success is just continuing to show up. Consistency beats a burst of activity every time.
I was asked to have a word for this year. My word is “Discipleship.” It is to help me focus, for myself and others, not so much on doing one thing or another, but of the life lived following Jesus. A half step forward every day that can be maintained over time is always going to be better than taking two steps in a row, and then losing momentum, sliding backwards.
How is God calling you to grow in your discipleship in this new year?
Good word, over the last year discipleship has been hot topic in my mind, paired along with holiness and combatting cheap grace. All of which takes times to build and grow in.