Pastor’s Corner: Arbitrary New Year

January 9, 2019

The New Year is a pretty arbitrary holiday. There is no special significance to the first of January that would not apply to, say, the first of July (which is when the fiscal new year begins for many businesses). Although the European year gets a lot of attention, nations and cultures continue to celebrate their own new years, and they’re scattered throughout the seasons: China’s in February, Iran’s in March, and Sri Lanka’s in April. October gets a lot of love, with Jewish, Muslim, and some Hindus celebrating then.

As I’ve observed before, making New Year’s resolutions is arbitrary as well. I’ve seen more than one comic this year inviting us to keep “attainable” resolutions: that is, to stay much the same, only older.

But isn’t all self-examination arbitrary? Last April I spent a week in the CREDO program, designed for ministers to review their physical, emotional, financial, spiritual, and professional health, and commit to improving it. Rather like a New Year’s resolution, we all made a covenant with ourselves to make some changes and take some actions.

And rather like a New Year’s resolution, I found that even the easy steps were harder than I thought. Though I’ve worked on all of them, I haven’t fully completed a single one. Does this experience echo with your own?

I think that invites us – me as much as anyone – to arbitrarily take up the challenge of life review and life improvement arbitrarily more often. Establish a few more check-in points. Give a few back-pats for the successes and look closely at the “failures.” What didn’t work, and what does that say about what might work better?

It will still be arbitrary – we’ll just make that visit to our mind, soul, and body’s well-being arbitrarily more often.

How’s that for a resolution?

With aloha,

Pastor Eric