Resolve not to be pulled off track in new year: Faith Matters clergy column by the Rev. Elizabeth Deibert
How is it going with your new year's resolutions?
Did you make them?
Did you break them?
Are you feeling lonely after the holidays or exhausted from family activities, travel and other special events?
Having just returned from a week away that required 27 hours of driving and nearly 30 relatives, I am weary.
Yet it is a new year, and a great time to reflect on how to grow into a more "sensible, ethical and holy person in 2016." That's the way one friend summarized her resolution.
The first Sunday after the 12 days of Christmas, is the one that invites Christians to reflect on the Sacrament of Baptism -- Jesus' baptism and ours.
The theme for this day is "beloved." We are God's beloved.
Unfortunately, we do not always live into that identity.
We listen to the messages of angry or frustrated family members or friends who shame us into thinking we are not good enough.
We add to that our own internal messages of failure and self-hatred, and we become depressed or angry or withdrawn or self-centered, trying to compensate for a deep sense of unworthiness.
When you lash out at someone else, it is usually because they tapped into a weakness, and you are unable or unwilling to deal with the frustration or hurt in a constructive way.
God wants to enter that deepest place of rejection and pain in you and fill it with love -- unconditional, reliable, and consistent love.
God is already there loving you and nudging you to grow in awareness of that steadfast love. If you accept the invitation and keep entering into the fullness of that love, your life will be transformed!
You will have more love to give away! Other people can point you toward this love but can never fill the gap.
Jesus understands what it means to be rejected and misunderstood. In his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, he has taken that experience into the fullness of the Triune God, to heal it with Divine Love.
I am confident if you spend time reflecting on the boundless love of God, if you celebrate the marvelous gift of God's forgiveness and grace, if you remind yourself that, despite your circumstances, God's love will triumph. you will slowly grow into the wholeness that Paul describes in Colossians 3:12-15.
It takes years of practice to believe you are holy and beloved and to clothe yourself with compassion, humility, meekness, and patience.
It takes decades to learn to forgive as God has forgiven. But living in this love is the only way you will ever be at peace and feel truly thankful.
So my resolution this year is to remember this identity and wear these virtues daily: As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. (Colossians 3:12-15 NRSV).
The Rev. Elizabeth Deibert, Peace Presbyterian Church, 12705 State Road 64, Lakewood Ranch. Email edeibert@peacepcusa.com or call 941-753-777.
This story was originally published January 7, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Resolve not to be pulled off track in new year: Faith Matters clergy column by the Rev. Elizabeth Deibert ."