The new year is here, and with it comes a plethora of posts, status updates, and various encouragements about how this year is going to be different.
- Maybe this year you’ll read the Bible all the way through.
- You’ll read 12, 20, or 100 books.
- You’ll lose that 15 pounds you wanted to lose last year that brought reinforcements.
Giving, serving, praying, working, resting… whatever you’re thinking of as your “resolution,” don’t let it be just that.
A resolution is, for many of us, a desire. I want to do this or that, but we don’t have follow through, either because we don’t have an achievable goal in mind, or we don’t have a plan to get there.
And in this, we have to think about what we are not going to do as much as what we want to do.
Looking back on where I failed to accomplish my goals over the last year, it all comes down to one thing: I was always trying to do too much. I wasn’t changing behavior to accomplish something new and important. I was generally just trying to do more—and the only thing I did less of was sleep well. I was denying my finite nature. I was ignoring that God gave me limits, and I cannot escape them. And neither can you.
Each of us only has 24 hours in each day. Each of us actually needs 6-9 hours of sleep a night. Each of us has limits on our capacity for work (and they vary from person to person).
So as you think about the opportunities that lie ahead, do look at where you can stretch yourself, but don’t try to work like this person or that, if it’s beyond your God-given capacity. Don’t try to read the way I do if enjoying a book a month is a challenge. And don’t forget to sleep.
Resolve to honoring the limits God has put in place, and you will already be off to a wiser start.
