“The people that you admire the most are not the people who are able to maintain their ideal weight, or the people that got out of debt…that’s not what inspires you. What inspires you, the people you are so grateful for, are the people who have made the world a better place or who have made someone’s world a better place.”
When I started listening to Andy Stanley’s podcast the other day, I was honestly expecting to be a little annoyed by it. I mean, the description reads “The new year is all about making ourselves better people. In this episode, Andy suggests becoming a better person by doing something to make the world a better place.”
Seriously. After just posting about how much I dislike New Year’s Resolutions, this sermon didn’t exactly look all too promising.
But. I listened anyway, since I tend to love Andy Stanley’s sermons and I thought that at least if I disagreed with what he said, it would give me something to write about later.
I was right. And I was wrong.
I was right, because here I am, using his words as inspiration for my latest post, but I was also wrong.
So very, very wrong.
Because once Andy mentioned that most people’s resolutions only affect themselves, he told a story about Nehemiah–
Nehemiah, who heard about the plight of the Israelites and his heart broke.
Nehemiah, who gave up his comfortable, secure job so he could help those in need.
Nehemiah, who saw something that broke his heart and resolved to do something about it.
In that moment, Nehemiah’s resolution meant changing the lives of the Israelites, or at least trying his hardest to do so. His resolution meant giving up his own ideas of perfection and satisfaction for the sake of helping others–which, if you’ll notice, is quite the opposite of how most of us have been conditioned to see resolutions today.
So, Andy concluded, perhaps we should be looking at resolutions differently. Perhaps instead of thinking about how we can lose weight, or establish better habits, or read more often, we should be thinking about how we might encourage that friend who has social anxiety, or write a letter to our mom who does so much, or visit the relative who’s stuck home on bedrest.
Perhaps I should be asking God about what breaks my heart, and then doing everything and anything I can to fight for that thing.
So. I guess I jumped the gun on disclaiming all resolutions for the new year.
Because maybe resolutions don’t have to mean self-reflection, or self-betterment, or self-improvement.
Maybe resolutions don’t have to be about ourselves at all.
And maybe, if we have a Nehemiah-esque heart for change and the courage to fight for it, then maybe resolutions actually give us an excuse to look past our own lives and into the lives of others–giving us the motivation we need to change the world (or perhaps just change someone‘s world).
So maybe, just maybe, resolutions aren’t such a bad thing after all.
the Story Café 