The Year That Was

How are you doing do with your New Years Resolutions?

The New Year promises the hope for something new and different. However its hope soon fades with the failure of so many great resolutions. According to surveys, only 8 percent of Americans successfully achieve their New Year's resolutions. A whopping 45 percent fail by the end of January! Why is it that our intentions are so strong but our behavior is so weak? The main reason our resolutions are broken is we are trying to do new things in the same old way. We need to start doing the same things in a new way.

Our life depends on what we name ourselves when others criticize us, we fail or circumstances become overwhelming. The main way we look at things is to do well so we can think and feel well about them. When we do poorly, we give ourselves negative names to feel poorly about them such as stupid, dumb, you idiot, what were you thinking?

This past year I had an event that seemed to me to be a failure. I did all I could to make it succeed. However it did not work out. I felt discouraged, depressed and exhausted. I took the moment to wonder what God was saying about it. The message I got was “Well done good and faithful servant.”
The word “faithful” is best described by St. Paul when he wrote. “What is required of a steward except to be faithful?” The word “steward” refers to a person who is in charge of someone else’s property. It means “sty warden” or the warden of the pig sty. Can you imaging being a sty warden in Jerusalem. The owner comes by and asks. “How are you doing?” You say “Not too well. I have not sold a single pig in a week, in a month. I have never sold a pig to a Jew in Jerusalem!” The owner asks us, “But were you faithful? Did you feed the pigs?”

That is what God is looking for. God looks for people who are faithful and willing to work through defeat and to move on. It is not what happens but how we handle what happens. It is not trying to feel good about something. It is about feeling good in something no matter what it is. That is where the “Well Done” comes from. We intended to do well and our heart was in it. It is not about what happened but how we did in it. That we were faithful was what was well done.

I am taking the name “Well Done” into this New Year with me.

As you enter and live though this New Year, remember this is not he Year that was. It is new. Do not try to do new things in the same old way. Change your way of doing the same old things in a new way. Discover the difference how being open to God’s “Well Done” blessing can change your way of thinking about who you are in any situation rather than having to wait until the ending to find out about what you are.