I refuse to write about New Year’s resolutions in the same old soul-draining way. Why? Because wellness the world’s way is never the right way when God’s left in the dust and lost in the droning of fads and fears of failure.
Lose weight by following these eating rules….
Guaranteed to lose inches with this new gizmo…
Get the body you want when you try this trend…
Sound somewhat familiar? Marketing taunts us to use different versions of the same trends we’ve all tried before. We strap up and settle in to some ‘new’ program promising results. We stare at our reflections in the mirror and make up our minds to make aesthetics our overarching emphasis to a New Year.
Huh….it’s sad, really, because a soul’s desire is always deeper than the skin’s.
Perhaps you’re diving a little deeper than skin level. Maybe you’ve decided to de-clutter your home, strike up a better balance in your every day living or practice ways to de-compress as you embark on a year with less stress.
But, even with deeper intentions, how long will it last? When will the white-knuckled, rule-following approach to soothing your soul-aching ever work to change your life in the way you truly long for?
I’ll tell you the truth for nine out of ten of you: It won’t last long and your life won’t change. So instead of bullying yourself into a battle likely to be lost, toss in the towel now! Why waste your time on socially-set aesthetic standards or culturally driven cries for self-improvement?
Anytime wellness is defined by the world, anytime we become self-reliant or our goals are formulated with self-satisfaction at their core, we’re guaranteed to fail.
Maybe it’s another way of God tapping our shoulders…telling us we’ve got the wrong approach. We won’t win when it’s all about US. We can’t really reach goals without Him.
Because here’s the thing: Even when the measures make us happy, we’ll always want more. Even when we reach a milestone, our minds will feel unsettled and our souls will slip and slide restlessly someplace between self-guilt and seething pride.
The guilt is what we beat ourselves up with when we fail for the fifth time. And pride is what we boast when we feel we’ve made it to the top only to look down from our lonely pedestals of self-striving.
Self-reliance is exhausting. When will we learn to give even this to HIM?
Redefine your resolutions. Turn them into a soul-revolution! Because, you see, when you start anything at the seat of your soul by surrendering and seeking His wisdom, change starts naturally in your heart.
And it’s the changing of your heart that can create a new beat for your behaviors…a new rhythm for your LIFE.
Surrender.
Seeking.
It's the opposite of self-reliance! Place your plans on an altar of sacrifice and surrender them to the only One who really guarantees the forever fruition of our goals!
I’m not suggesting you halt healthy intentions and stop striving to live well in body and mind. Some of God’s greatest blessings are these beautiful bodies and marvelous minds! Shouldn’t we care for them out of sheer reverence for our Creator?
But I hope you consider living well a matter of the soul instead of lost in the ways of the world without meaning of what this life is all about. Because it's in the ways we conduct ourselves every day defining who we are IN HIM.
If you’re leaving Him out of your passion and pursuits already this year, you’ve missed the meaning already. You’re leaving out the only factor that’ll ever keep you from certain failure.
So, here’s what we’ll do: We’ll live well from the inside out. We’ll seek His wisdom instead of walking with the world. We will decide how to live our lives this year by first seeking His will and giving our wants and worries to Him.
I won’t stop writing about it from what I consider a more purposeful perspective! Sure, there’ll be more real-food recipes, steps to eating clean and energizing exercise routines. I’ll even give goals and videos to my Happily Whole Members to help them live well throughout the year. But all of it only after we’ve laid our desires down at His feet and given Him thanks for His ever faithful guidance.
Then when we get weary in living well, we’ve got God to rest in. Because, you see, ‘In Him all things hold together’. (Colossians 1:17)
And with Him holding us together, we can never really fall apart.
So, let’s redefine what living well looks like this year. Let’s reset those resolutions and make them a soul-revolution! (read more here:) I’m ready to restart with Him in my heart…are you?
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