Replacing Resolution: Welcoming the New Year with a different kind of practice

After Christmas, right about when we’re pining for a fresh start, sweeping dead pine needles and New Year’s confetti from under the couch, the American holiday season of “Resolution” arrives. Lucky for us, beginning January 1, every diet pill, nicotine patch, organizing gizmo, life coach app, health club membership, lean meal plan, self-help book and storage container is on sale. It’s as though Baby Jesus came to earth to give us one more go-round at changing all the rotten things about ourselves! (At least until we pitter out sometime mid-February).

But the truth is quite the opposite. Baby Jesus came to earth to share this life with us. Christ joins our life and dies our death so nothing can separate us from God’s love. God is here with us now, as we are, however we are. And when we’re exhausted and disillusioned from the season, we might choose to observe a different holiday than Resolution: Epiphany.