I was sitting in contemplation and a vision came to me.
Practicing two things every day will change your outlook, attitude, relationships, and life.
Practice Jesus’s commandment–Love God and your neighbor.
All the time, practice this. Practice it until it’s an integral part of life.
And two, practice mindful meditation twice a day.
Reach out with one practice; reach inward with the second.
Practice this every day in 2019. When 2020 comes, you will look back and marvel at how you changed.
Alfred E. Newman. The face of Mad Magazine, one of my youthful favorites. He has that goofy grin and mantra, “What, Me worry?”
I often joke that he’s my hero.
Are you a sports fan? Read much about your favorite team in whatever sport you choose? What is the common theme of what must be 70% of the writing?
Conjecture!
So and so wants to be traded to X team. These will be the coaches of those teams next year. This team is moving to another city (an American phenomenon).
Totally worthless reading. Why worry about all that?
Same with political news. It’s all about “what if” that and “this could be” there.
Why worry?
Give me the actual news, somebody did something that affects me. Briefly. With enough context to understand. Move on.
Maybe it’s a fun pastime to sit around with friends and conjecture about sports or politics. I don’t know.
But I do know that Jesus told us not to worry about such things. One good life-enhancing habit for this year would be to pare these idle gossipy things out of our life and concentrate on more worthwhile pursuits.
And don’t worry.
My wife and I stopped by a fast food restaurant to pick up a sandwich after her meeting. Got a “meal deal” that included a small soda.
I sat at the table contemplating that soda (most likely the only one we’ll have all month). I thought, “In my life I’ve seen that size called a large; now it is called a small.”
Have our desires and expectations grown so much that what today is a large soda in a restaurant is a quantity not even dreamed of 30 or 40 years ago?
No wonder we have an obesity crisis.
Sometimes emergency medical teams cannot move people from a second floor bedroom to the waiting ambulance without a struggle. Even before medical training, the teams need weight training to build their muscles.
How about our desires and expectations toward other people? Do we need to be served all the time as if we are little princes and princesses?
How about our desires and expectations toward God?
Do we worship “Vending Machine God” where we deposit a quick prayer and expect a miracle to come out?
This is not a recent phenomenon. The apostle Paul refers to the dangers of rampant desire often. So also, see my favorite writer, James.
That is a reason we need to sharpen our spiritual practices. Maintain focus on the other rather than on ourselves.
Jesus warned us once, “Beware the yeast of the Pharisees…”
Yeast is a little thing that infuses the entire dough changing entirely the bread that emerges from the oven.
The Pharisees were teachers who had developed a curriculum that included memorizing 600+ rules and then following them in your life.
The game they played was Gotcha.
They watched people only to pounce–“Gotcha, you broke rule 562. You’re going to hell.”
We know modern Pharisees.
The point isn’t to worry about them. They’ll do what they do. They will get their reward. Just shrug them off.
The point is for us to watch within us for signs of the yeast of the Pharisees growing in us.
When did I point a finger (maybe only metaphorically) at someone and condemn them?
When did I say something about someone judgmentally?
Better–when did I catch myself about to say something and then stopped?
If my resolution this year is to be a better person, then what better way to start?
A year is not an arbitrary construction. It marks the completion of another trip of the Earth around the sun. The day we mark it is an arbitrary agreement to pick a day to start counting toward the next year.
It is useful to reflect back on our experiences and growth and setbacks.
It is not useful to dwell on the past days in nostalgia.
I am prone to looking forward. How will I grow? How will I handle whatever stresses and opportunities that come my way?
After all, spiritual growth is very much about growing as a complete human.
Pray with intention for God to bring new people into our life this year.
Pray with intention for God to reveal a new or expanded service or ministry.
Pray with intention for God to lead us to a fuller life.
May 2019 be a blessing to you all.
Go ahead, admit it. You’ve already started your list of New Year’s Resolutions.
You know you will forget them by January 15.
I’m preparing for a jump in attendance in my Yoga class next week.
Of course, by the end of January attendance will be pretty much where it has been.
Resolving that “I will be healthier this year” or “I will weigh a health 1XX pounds” won’t do it.
Deciding on one or two new habits will make the change permanent.
Tomorrow morning I will make a breakfast of oatmeal with fruit. And the next morning. Maybe even laying out the bowl the night before. Do that for 30 days, and you will be moving on your way to a healthier and slimmer you.
Tomorrow morning I will get up and either go to the gym or the park and run/walk for 30 minutes. Do that for 30 days along with one change in eating, and you will have new habits and be on your way to health and fitness.
After a couple of months, you could say, for example, “since I am already at the gym to run or walk daily (maybe skipping weekends or something), I will add using the weight machines to firm up my muscles.”
Apply this to business. We never say, “I resolve to fail.” But perhaps you could change one habit. Maybe in how you compliment people. Maybe, if you are in sales, make it a habit that every day at 9 am I will make 10 sales calls. I don’t schedule meetings, I make calls. I add it to my calendar. Make it a habit.
Habits are a nice way of talking about disciplines. Rather than saying “I will grow spiritually,” say, “tomorrow morning I will get up 15 minutes earlier and read from the Bible (or other spiritual book) followed by meditating on the thought for 5 minutes.” Have a chair with the book on the table beside it. Get up, brew your coffee or tea, and sit down to do your spiritual work. After 30 days you will have a habit that everyone will notice.
Warning: Don’t try too many new habits all at once. You’ll be overwhelmed. One habit change can noticeably change your life.
A sad person to come across is one who has stopped learning.
A wise person whom I have long since forgotten proposed the inoculation theory of education. You have a little introduced into your system and then you are immune from it for the rest of your life.
Sadly, too many people resemble that remark.
Every day there is something new to learn.
Read with curiosity looking for the new insight.
Avoid “group think” and read contrary views.
When I was 20, I read an argument of Karl Marx’s about how the Industrial Revolution has caused an alienation of humans from their work. No longer craftsmen, humans became cogs in a machine of production.
150 years down the road, we still have a lot of that.
I’ve outlined a book bringing that idea forward. I think the first sentence will be “when everyone else thinks x, then it is time to consider y.” I will continue to learn how humans are employing their brains and hands to develop things. We don’t have to be cogs. There is a new way.
Ask why. Read a book or ten on the subject. Ask why about each of them.
Ask why about God. Then study and meditate. And ask why some more. It’s not sacrilegious. God gave us the facility. If we want to learn more, then we have to ask more.
Make it not a New Year’s Resolution. Make it a way of life.
I hated that word.
As an adolescent, I translated that word into meaning an external force telling me what to do.
That is probably typical for that stage of growth. Especially when you grew up with discipline as a reaction rather than a way of life.
Some would say I matured. But I discovered that without some sort of discipline in my life, I was not going to finish college.
As I read the spiritual fathers and mothers of various faiths, I discovered spiritual disciplines that take the concept to the next level.
It is simply a practice of doing certain things for certain outcomes.
There, I just substituted the word practice. I could also say habits intentionally developed.
I decided to grow my mind and intellect. I have the practice of reading–a lot.
I decided to grow spiritually. I have the practices of study and meditation.
I decided to have as healthy a physical body as possible. I have the practices of going to the gym, exercising, Yoga. The nutrition part is still a work in process 😉
These are just examples. I’m not telling you what to do. I don’t like someone telling me what to do, and I don’t like telling others what to do or believe.
But perhaps we could all look into ways of improving our inner disciplines in the coming year. A little at a time.
We hurry through December hurtling into Christmas.
Christmas Day is now behind us. Time to hurry into New Year’s Day. Or Eve. With the parties, contrived or real.
Maybe we pause amidst the football of the week to compose a list of Resolutions.
We want to be better.
If we accomplished the Resolutions, perhaps we would be better. Healthier. Stronger. Smarter. More popular.
Then we get into the hurry of the year.
The gyms after being packed for the first two or three weeks of January will return to normal as people return to old habits and forget their resolutions.
This is a good time to pause. Reflect on the past year. Determine our opportunities for the new year.
Pick one habit to replace an old one.
Maybe I add one food to my normal diet and replacing a sugary food.
Maybe I join a fitness class that I’ll actually go to as I build a habit of health.
Maybe I get up 15 minutes earlier and read something refreshing for the spirit or nourishing for the mind.
Maybe I replace hurry for creative pauses.
I hope Christmas was good for you. Pause and enjoy. Then go on.
Pete Seeger’s banjo head. (Photo from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.)
Sometimes we Christians do not exhibit the virtues that the gospel writers told us about Jesus’ birth. Jesus came, but that wasn’t the end of the story.
Gary Mintchell
Faith Venture 