Let's Make 2017 a Better Year!

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

Matthew 5:5

I have never been one for New Year’s resolutions. They don’t work for me, never have

This year I have resolved to lose some weight but I began the process the day after Christmas. No pressure. No New Year’s resolution, just a determined effort to shed a few pounds.

Losing some weight will make me healthier. I will feel immeasurably better. My golf game may even improve.

Okay, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest and announced my intentions publicly (a way of holding myself accountable) I wish to address another issue that has been eating at me of late.

This past year will not go down as one of my favorite years. You with me on this? I can honestly say that I am looking forward to wishing 2016 a hearty farewell.

Now quite frankly it isn’t the year itself that is at fault, but rather the way we have treated one another over the past year.

We have turned our Social Media outlets into verbal battlegrounds, casting insults at one another, calling one another names, as if we were school children, casting venomous insults at one another, and disparaging one another’s opinions. Unfortunately we think because we don’t know a person personally on our Social Media outlet we can rip them apart with our hateful words and hurtful insults. 

Now the sad thing about all this is that we Christians have not exempted ourselves from the name calling, insulting rhetoric, and downright mean-spiritedness that is painted all over our Social Media networks, especially on Facebook.

Granted, not everyone falls into this category, but enough so to be noticeable.

So I have decided to make the third Beatitude, cited above, my theme for 2017. . . my Scriptural anchor as it were. 

It’s not a New Year’s resolution per se, but rather my attempt to display a kinder, gentler, and less combative self over the course of the coming year.

To be meek is to demonstrate outward gentleness and kindness towards others while maintaining a strong spiritual center. Being meek is not being a wimp as it is often thought to be. Being meek actually reflects a strong self-confidence; it demonstrates that one is actually comfortable in one's skin; it shows a deep spiritual strength.

You see, meekness is the opposite of power grabbing. It is adverse to one’s need to be in control. To live meekly is to show kindness and compassion to the undeserving of the world. To practice meekness is to forfeit the need to be right about everything. Meekness is not favorable towards quid pro quo. 

To practice meekness is to refuse to gloat over one’s victories, to rub it in the faces of those who lost (this applies to sports, politics, and other competitive activities in which we humans participate with one another). 

Truth is there are sore winners just like there are sore losers and meekness is good medicine for both. 

Personally, I believe 2017 can be a better year but I also believe that meekness is an essential part of the formula that is going to make us all more generous, compassionate, and kinder to one another.

And in the end we will feel better about ourselves and one another, even those faceless trollers of the Social Media who forever agitate us. 

Have a kinder and gentler New Year!