Episcopal Church Foundation Vital Practices - Blogs

December 28, 2010

Crafting Resolutions

Since I’m going to be in Texas for the foreseeable future (or at least until flights to New York begin again), I find myself with an abundance of time on my hands. Which is fine by me. My family’s home in the Texan hill country is an amazing place to get “stuck.” In the past two days I’ve found time and silence galore to sit outside, read, write, and go on lengthy walks.

This surprise gift of time has also allowed me to reconsider my goals for the New Year. Yesterday, for instance, I reviewed the page in my journal where I’d written my 2011 resolutions and began to think about how this practice of annual goal setting is connected to a life of faith.

I believe that New Year resolutions are as profound or superficial as people make them. Whereas many will rattle something off as the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, taking the time to craft thoughtful resolutions can be a profound spiritual exercise. If approached with care, they can be as powerful a statement as any about our priorities, our hopes and privately-held dreams.

My question, then, has to do with whether there’s an opportunity for faith leaders to play in helping people to name New Year’s goals. I mean this especially in the pastoral sense: how can we encourage disempowered members of our communities to imagine a New Year? How can we walk with fellow parishioners as they journey to accomplish their boldest dreams? Lastly, how can we as individual goal setters turn to our parishes for support and accountability as we aim to reshape our lives in the image of Christ?

Coming directly off of Christmas, it’s tempting to dismiss the importance of New Year celebrations. After all, didn’t the New Year begin on Advent 1? Yet year after year, a great lot of us - religious and nonreligious alike - do something which feels deeply "spiritual": we sit down, reflect on the past year and write down our hopes for the next. Wouldn't it be wonderful if our faith communities played a role in this process?