Four years ago I made a New Year’s resolution.
Normally I’m not very good at them, but this one stuck. For the entirety of 2011 I was going to bake all of my bread from scratch. No store-bought dinner rolls, rustic artisan loaves, sandwich bread, or hamburger buns. They would come out of my oven, or we wouldn’t have them at all.
And aside from a couple of moments when I was extremely crunched for time, I made it. I was pretty proud of my accomplishment.
But I haven’t kept a New Year’s resolution since. Come to think of it, I’m not sure I’ve even made one.
And then after hearing a fantastic sermon at church a few weeks back, I started to wonder if my problem is that I’ve been approaching resolutions all wrong.
I want to make a resolution that means something. That has value. That I feel within the depths of my heart. And a lot of the time, those things don’t always align. So I just sigh and decide that I was not meant to have a resolution for yet another year.
But in that sermon a few weeks back, here’s what captured me. It was a brief but profound breakdown of a familiar verse.
How often do we run over those familiar words without pausing to actually contemplate them? “Notice carefully what Jesus says,” the pastor urged. “Our treasures do not follow our hearts but our hearts follow our treasure. …Invest your time, your talents, and your treasures in what is close to the heart of God and Jesus says your heart will follow. You will begin to see your heart change.”
Perhaps that’s what’s been missing. I’ve been waiting to feel passionately toward a cause or a purpose and never felt compelled enough to commit. But what I need is the commitment first.
In a world that is all about following your heart perhaps we need to start leading it instead. So in 2015 I resolve to commit myself to something that has both meaning and value, and I know that if I do that, I will begin to feel passion for it within the depths of my heart.
2015 will not be about following my heart or waiting around to feel like God has changed it. It will be about pursuing His passions and believing that if I do that, they will become mine.
I’m not sure what specifically I’m going to focus on yet, but I’m confident it will be good. Happy New Year, everyone!
