"Grace" as a New Year's Resolution

 January 2016

Dear Friends,

            This is the season when many of us think to ourselves, “now, what are my intentions for this new year?”  We make resolutions, usually having to do with diet or exercise, and carry them out with varying degrees of success.  The people who study these things claim that it takes 66 days for a practice to become a reliably adopted habit.  So, if we can just get through the first three months, then we are well on our way!

            Some old-fashioned religious terms have been working on me as I think about what my intentions will be for 2016.  The words are “mercy” and “grace”.  Life these days tends to be so contentious, that many of us have built up thick protective walls to our hearts.  We are on the defensive, on high alert, looking for any transgressions that might cause us harm or pain. 

            Mercy and grace stand in stark contrast to a closed-off and carefully protected heart.  They coax and invite us to consider a different way of being in relationship with others.  They ask us to embrace and embody a softer and gentler way of being in the world.  In a recent lecture, Richard Rohr, a Franciscan monk and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation, spoke about the freedom we give to ourselves when we let go of the need to always be right, to always do exactly and only the right thing.  He invited his listeners to consider that being loving was a higher value than being right.

            This sounds to me like a worthy New Year’s resolution, to choose to be loving rather than focusing my energies on always attempting to be right.  I like the freedom inherent in letting go of the need to judge every situation.  I look forward to seeking out ways to express my love and appreciation without the need to assess the rightness or wrongness of a person or of their choices.  I appreciate the challenge of breathing new life into seemingly old-fashioned concepts like mercy and grace, so that they can gain credibility in a world that has become way too contentious.

            I don’t think my resolution is going to be easy to keep.  In fact, a diet or exercise program might be a whole lot simpler, but I feel the need to stand in opposition to the violence that permeates so much of our lives today, and this seems like a powerful way to do it.  Even if it doesn’t make a dent “out there” in the world, I have a suspicion it will make a big difference “in here” in my heart and in my life.

May grace and mercy be with you in this New Year.

Shirley