New Year, New You

No, I’m not trying to sell you running shoes. But lots of other people are, and the slogan “New Year, New You” seems to be all over the place. Others may not be selling shoes, but ARE selling gym memberships, treadmills, or weight-loss meal plans. That’s because retailers are on to us. They know that after the binge of holiday celebrations many of us are ready to resolve to make some big changes.

There’s actually nothing wrong with change. In fact, change is at the heart of the Christian life. Almost everything Jesus talked about involved change on the part of His hearers. If it wasn’t a change in behavior, it was a change in attitude or perspective. But Jesus wasn’t too concerned with physical appearance. His main concern was for the undying souls of the people He encountered and that concern is extends to us as well.

Let’s face it, we’d all like to make changes. Some of them are for things like our physical fitness or the excess weight we carry. But deep down, like Jesus, we’re also concerned about the state of our souls. And similar to the way too many of us mistreat our bodies, let’s be honest and admit that too often we have done just as poorly with the conditioning of our souls.

Starting in January, I’m going to be speaking about change in general and some things that make it much more likely to find success with the changes we’d like to make. Then I’m going to focus in on five simple changes (you’ll notice I said “simple” and not “easy”). I believe that if each of us would make these five changes, we would have the kind of life we’d really like to have, and even better, the kind of life God wants for us.

We’ll begin with the homily on Sunday, January 8. If you can join us, I think you’ll find it helpful. If you can’t, feel free to listen in each week as we post the recordings online, where you can link to them from our website at www.stnicholasgr.com. Until then, keep enjoying these “12 Days of Christmas” leading to Holy Theophany, and I wish you all a happy and healthy New Year!