By Oz Lorentzen on January 4, 2025.
Like many of you, I am thinking about New Year’s Resolutions. One difficulty with our New Year’s Resolutions is that we do not go back far enough. Any real analysis that would lead to important resolve and setting goals needs to account for more than the past 12 months. It is a new year, and every new beginning is an opportunity, an invitation, to reflect on the beginning. Since we are not self created – the fact that we are and who we are now are not our own doing – taking account of this (our indebtedness, that we are not self-made) has the potential to dramatically change any resolutions we make. We may recall, for instance, unpaid debts of gratitude to parents, teachers, friends, community – all of which have great promise for forming important and lasting resolve, leading to real change in ourselves and positive impact on others. If so, this suggest that a (the?) main problem with our New Year’s resolve is that it is centred in/on the self: we resolve to be more: better “this,” more efficient “that.” There seems to be something in the nature of human reality that works to sabotage all such goals stemming from all such motives – as the cliche about New Year’s resolutions would suggest. If, however, we place the Self in a broader context; If we remember our beginning, remember The Beginning; Then we gain the insight that can lead to meaningful change. There is (very often) a healthy and transformative result from investing in relationships, in contributing to the well being of others, in developing the “attitude of gratitude.” And, according to tradition and the ancient wisdom remembering our beginning and The Beginning will naturally lead to these attitudes and behaviours. Happy Resolves and Happy New Year! Oz Lorentzen is the pastor at St. Barnabas Anglican Church 10