SETTING RESOLUTIONS SHOULD BE ABOUT ETERNITY

This is the time of year when we all set New Year’s resolutions. But this year may we consider them from an eternal perspective.

Stephen Covey shares a parable in his book, "Seven Habits of Highly Successful People." He tells of a crew building a road through the jungle. Day after day they work so hard. Certainly they could not be faulted for lack of effort, for they soak the jungle floor with their own sweat.

But one day the crew chief climbs a tall tree and looks out over the jungle and shouts down in dismay, "Stop! Stop! We’re going the wrong direction!"

Workers down below, however, respond, "But we’re making progress!"

Many of us pour our hearts and souls into endeavors that are not getting us to where we really ought to be going. We’re making "progress," but unless we get a higher perspective, we will be very disappointed when – at the end of time – we realize we failed to take into account those things that truly matter in eternity.

How are we using our time here on earth? Do we sacrifice the things that matter most for the sake of those things that matter least? In other words, do the things of this earth take priority over those things that have eternal consequence?

In mental and emotional anguish, a farmer goes to his aging father. Bad weather and disease over the past few years have destroyed the son’s crops, and now he faces bankruptcy. The once proud man feels humiliation and anger as he sees the fruit if his years of labor in ruin.

"Dad, my orchard’s destroyed," he says. "I don’t know what to do. Dad, why would God let this happen to me?"

I put his wise father’s response into verse:

God cares about problems; he cares about pain.

But he allows his children to make their own way.

When things go wrong, he could intervene.

But man, Sonny, is made to be free.

When the frost came late and killed the crop,

You said no God would allow your loss.

But while God loves apples, and cherries, too,

Mostly, Sonny, he cares about you.

God cares about drought; he cares about rain.

He cares about sorrow; he cares about pain.

God cares about earthquakes and your problems, too.

But mostly, Sonny, he cares about you.

No crops thrive where there’s only sunshine.

There has to be snow and rain sometimes.

And while God cares how your crops grew,

Mostly, Sonny, he cares about you.

When you had the boom years, did you thank God?

You acted mighty proud around the in-laws.

When you had good years, did it make you strong?

No, Sonny, it was all going wrong.

You were running here and flying there.

No time for family or wife to spare.

So many tasks you said were past due,

No time for him who created you.

You cared about crops; you cared about self.

You cared about status; you cared about wealth.

But God’s main crop isn’t growing fruit.

Mostly, Sonny, he’s trying to grow you.

God could give you fun; he could give you money.

He could make you happy all the time, Sonny.

But if God didn’t give opposition, too,

Sonny, he wouldn’t care about you.

Oaks don’t grow strong in ideal conditions.

They need rain and snow ... and some opposition.

Men grow in opposition, too.

You see, Sonny … God’s still growin’ you.

While faced with all the plights of life, can we live in eternity? Time is insignificant when you realize that all the time in the world is but a drop in the infinite.

And when time has run out, will we be judged based on what we have achieved in man’s society? No. From his judgment seat overseeing the infinite, God will judge us for what we have become inside. What kind of character we have developed.

Have we cultivated love of God, charity toward man, humility, peace, spiritual knowledge and wisdom, selflessness, purity of thought, consecration to God’s will, and gratitude for our blessings?

What you do this day – will it matter 50 years from now? How about 5,000 years from now? Many things that absorb our time have no significance in even 5 days, much less in 5 million years.

May we not neglect our Mount Sinai, but climb our personal peak of inspiration in pursuit of heavenly light and perspective. May we look out over the eternities and recognize how short our vision has so often been.

And as we set our New Year’s resolutions, may we keep in mind our divine purpose as children of the almighty King of the infinite universe.