Good resolutions - Happy New Year 2022!

Happy 2022! Not a very popular thing these days, but I'm a big believer in resolutions :) I understand why people don't like resolutions. When you fail to keep the resolution, you end up feeling bad. Which is a fair point. 

I just happen to look at it a little differently. When I make resolutions, and I succeed, I'm happy of course. But if I don't succeed (which is often), at least I know that I haven't done it. And then I can do something about it. It's an aspirational tool, whether I succeed or don't. In fact, most of my new year resolutions persist from year to year. Those that I succeed at, I resolve to do again. Those that I fail at, I keep going.

But how do we decide what those resolutions should be in the first place? I volunteer with a mentorship programme for polytechnic and university students. The opening session is always about - what is your mission? In this year's batch, I asked the students to consider, in this day and age of "you do you!", if there is such a thing as a bad mission.

The majority of them started out with the position that there is no such thing as a bad mission. You do you. Everybody has their own truth. It's a popular thing to say these days.

OK. One of Hitler's missions was to exterminate the Jews. Was that a good mission? 

One of Bernie Madoff's missions was to formulate a Ponzi scheme to defraud thousands of their life savings. Was that a good mission?

Joey Chestnut's mission was to become world hot dog eating champion, by downing 76 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes. Was that a good mission?

 

What if your mission is to make enough money to buy a private jet? Is that a good mission?

So, there is such a thing as a bad mission. "You do you" is simply invalid as a guiding principle. To be fair though, while some of us might agree that the last two are bad missions, others might believe that they are acceptable missions. As I formulate my resolutions and mission for 2022, here's what I'm thinking:

Good missions don't harm others. The reason why most of us are sure that Hitler's mission was a bad one, was because it killed around 6 million Jews, not including those who tried who help the Jews. Ditto for Bernie Madoff, who took $17.5b from 37,000 investors in a massive Ponzi scheme. This is the so-called Silver Rule - don't do to others what you would not have them do to you. In other words, do no harm.

But Jesus took a step further than "do no harm", and taught what is known today as the Golden Rule - do unto others what you would have them do to you (Matthew 7:12). Love your neighbour as yourself (Mark 12:31). So, good missions should be useful to others too. That's why we might question the worth of a mission to be world hot dog eating champ. Doesn't harm anyone (probably), but helps practically no one else. Ditto the mission of earning enough to buy a private jet. Doesn't harm anyone, but helps practically no one else (and probably causes a lot of carbon emissions!).

Good missions should also be sustainable, and not just a fire and forget endeavour. It's great to do a spontaneous good deed, or volunteer at a charity event. But it's far more effective to have a lifestyle of building relationships, and commit to regular work to bless the underprivileged. The apostle Paul teaches this in Galatians 6:9 "Let us not become weary of doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up".

A 10 kg weight loss in 1 month is less effective than losing 1 kg and then regularly doing what it takes to keep it off. In the same way, grand gestures and big charity events might get more likes on social media, but they are less effective than 1000 small and regular actions seen only by a few.

Finally, I think good missions are joyful. It's a bummer to be a sullen martyr as we go about our life missions, or to be merely functional in helping others. This is inevitable if we go on our own strength. Unless we are only turning up occasionally for a photo op, regularly caring for others is hard work. That's why I'm so glad for the truth in the Bible that "We love because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19).

I don't have to go about my life on my own. I don't have to rely only on my own strength. I don't have to count only on my own decision-making. 

I can choose to love because the One whose love endures forever, first loved me. I can choose to be generous, because the One who is my Provider fills my empty hands to overflowing. I can choose to simply follow Him, because the One who knows the way, leads the way.

And when I choose all that, my mission is not merely functional, but joyful.

God bless you, all my friends, with good missions in a 2022 that will be full of goodness for you and those around you, that is sustainable for this year and the years to come, and that is overflowing with joy that comes not from our own hands, but in following the One who rejoices over us.

Amen!