A blog post to start the New Year is cliche, I do undersand that. But you know what, who cares. 2013 is now over and 2014 is upon us. And as I sit here on my couch reading through Facebook and Twitter posts about New Year resolutions and all that fun stuff, something seems off. Each year at this time we as humans think back and reflect upon the previous year. For some of us it was a great year, for others it was not so great. And then we begin to think about the 365 days ahead of us and our expectations for them. We make our new year resolutions and hope to follow them.
But what are our new years resolutions? To eat healthier? Read more books? Become a better person? Those are all great things and I have no doubt that many of you do follow them pretty well. Now I have never been one for resolutions. That is not meant to make me sound above those who make them or anything. In reality, I don't make them because I know I will not follow them. I do not have the discipline to do so. And I also think it's silly to wait until the first of the year to try and make a good change. If you know you need to chagne something in your life, why wait? But put that point aside.
What I want to get at here is this; as we are making all these new resolutions and such, we are failing to see the one change that we do need to make, the one resolution that is not just for the new year but for new life. The one that has been around for over 2,000 years that we often forget about. The one that goes like this, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13:34-35. I believe in those two versus Jesus has given us the only new years resolution we need. He has given us the one change we need to make in our lives. He is telling us that we need to simply love people.
If we just stop and think about that. Just imagine how much better the world would be if we just loved one another. If you are reading this and do not believe in or follow Christ, I still believe that this applies to you as well as Christ followers. When we Love people well, their lifes are changed, affected. All those Facebook statuses we read this morning about how bad 2013 sucked, I fully believe that those would decrease. With more Love in our lives, things would be much more easy. Even when dealing with tough losses and bad situations, if our friends, family, and strangers showed us some love, we could get through those tough times. And I believe that is what Jesus is saying here. The most important thing is to Love as He has Loved us. Now, we cannot love in that way, His Love is perfect, but we can stride to love that way.
So all that to say this friends, for your new years resolution, just Love people better. And if we all do this, not only will we see a great new year, but I believe we will see a lot of new life!
-Opher-
