Resolutions v. "Holy Habits"

It was the morning of December 26th and already a lone tree had been thrown to the back of the parking lot at the public library near our house. This is the site where once brightly adorned Christmas trees are placed when they’ve done their duty. The county takes them from the parking lot and does something with them, I’m not sure what. Soon there will be a mountain of trees behind the library. But to see one solitary tree lying on the wet asphalt on the morning after Christmas felt abrupt. Someone was in a hurry; a hurry to leave Christmas behind or a hurry to get on with what’s next.

These days immediately following Christmas are transitional in a number of ways. We take down garland and lights and restore the house to its more typical appearance. We slowly get back to work after days of traveling or receiving family. We find a few more moments of quiet after being inundated with parties and dinners and gatherings. Somewhere in the midst of this we begin to realize that another year is almost over. We may become reflective about the year past, how quickly it got by us, what happened and didn’t happen. At some point another shift begins to take place. We start looking ahead.

How do you cross the threshold of the New Year? A standard practice is the formulation of resolutions for the coming year – a list or statement about what you want to see happen and what you’ll do to bring it about. Lose weight, start jogging, finish a degree, hike the Appalachian Trail, expand the business. Many of us, having made resolutions year after year that we didn’t keep, have stopped the practice altogether. We make some plans, purchase a new calendar for the kitchen and the desk, and leave it at that.

Resolutions can be either helpful or burdensome. They give shape and guidance to the New Year or they can inflict guilt over a good intention that never came to fruition. Whether you make resolutions or not, I’d like to suggest a new practice for 2008. This is something you can easily add to your resolutions; it may be something you adopt as an alternative to resolutions.
The practice: adopt “Holy Habits.” I borrow the phrase from Mark Buchanan. Holy Habits recognize that from year to year God is continually at work. God’s game plan doesn’t change, but the variety of plays God runs is endless. God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. At the same time, God delights in making all things new. Holy Habits are ways that we participate in what God is already doing. Holy Habits do not ask us to start something new, but to find our role in something very old. Holy Habits are simply ways of paying attention to what God is doing. A simple starting place might look like this:

God continues to speak.
God spoke in the distant past through prophets and apostles and through Jesus. God still speaks to us. We would do well to cultivate the habit of listening. Our primary help in doing this is the written scriptures. John Calvin rightly understood that the Spirit and the Word work in tandem and speak to us. On a practical level, we need to make a time and a space for listening. When and where will you find enough quiet to give your attention to what God is saying to you?

God continues to love people
During Advent and Christmas we linger over the words of John’s gospel, words that revel in the mystery of the incarnation. John later states the aim of the incarnation with this familiar truth: “For God so loved the world.” The love of God that birthed creation and sent Jesus to us still continues to this very day. God loves the world, the people of the world, the people you work with and the people you drive past on our city streets. We would do well to find a way that allows us to love people too. God’s love comes to others through us. How will you find an avenue of service that allows you to actively bring God’s love to your world? What act of service will become for you a “holy habit?”

God continues to bless us
The holy habit of gratitude is our response to the reality that all good gifts, every good thing we know in this life, comes to us from God. The challenge is cultivating gratitude in the midst of adversity and hardship. Still, God is continually blessing. In both affliction and joy we can know that God is present with us. We practice gratitude as we steward our resources and use our gifts. We express our gratitude as God’s people whenever we gather in worship.

The list is simple: listen to God, serve others, join in worship, practice gratitude by using what God has given you. Resolutions come and go, change from year to year, vary in their urgency from week to week or month to month. Holy Habits are for a lifetime. They are not necessarily easy to cultivate, but they will never stop rewarding our efforts. This is because God is continually at work, never changing, and always welcoming us to be a part of bringing in the Kingdom. There is no better way to invest yourself in 2008.