Conserving the Culture

It’s the beginning of a new year, and I’ve established many, uh, aspirations, I’ll call them. Not resolutions, because then I’d have to admit I’ve already broken most of them. Not goals, because I’d have to make them “S.M.A.R.T” — so all the productivity experts say, anyway — with plans and steps and deadlines for achieving them. Not happening. So I’ll just call them aspirations.

As long as you don’t turn them into resolutions or goals, aspirations don’t place a lot of demands on a person. But mine do seem to be making me more attune to things that would bring me closer to becoming the person I aspire to be. Case in point, this week I read an excerpt from James Clear’s Atomic Habits that got me thinking about how I think about my life.

According to Clear, we could all be happier if we changed just one word in the self-talk running through our minds all day. Clear says that instead of going through our days telling ourselves we “have” to do this or we “have” to do that, we should say we “get” to do this or that. It doesn’t sound like a big deal; you may have even heard this before. But it got my attention because I do, in fact, often bemoan — in my mind, at least — all the things I think I have to do.

Such a little thing — changing that one word — but it works because there’s an element of gratitude implicit in approaching the daily tasks of life as things we “get” to do rather than things we “have” to do. It’s the gratitude — not the “get to” — that really makes the difference in our happiness. It would make an even greater difference if we added, “God gave me” — as in, I get to do these things because God gave me the strength or the ability or the opportunity — and recognized that we owe our gratitude to Him.

I seldom listen to music when I’m in my car. A podcast is more my style. But on a recent errand-running day, I pulled out an old Oak Ridge Boys CD and slipped it into my car’s CD player. As I drove from stop to stop, I had a great time singing along to the old hits, but one in particular – “Everyday” – stayed in my head.

“Everyday” has a catchy tune, so it’s no surprise it was a hit when it was released back in the ’80s. But it was the song’s message that grabbed my attention on my errand day. The second stanza begins, “A kind word never goes unheard, but too often goes unsaid. On the tongues of the old and the young, it’s swallowed up in pride instead.” So true. Whether out of pride, apathy, or just plain self-absorption we too often neglect to say the kind, encouraging word that could make a difference in someone’s day.

When Paul enjoined the Thessalonians to “encourage one another and build each other up,” his message was meant for future Christians, too. “With all the trouble and sorrow in the world,” as the song goes on to say, no one escapes heartache and pain. And everyone of us can use a kind, encouraging word “everyday.”

As this new year begins, let’s challenge ourselves to follow Paul’s instruction and the song’s plea to “take a kind word into the street and share it with everybody [we] meet.” Instead of letting pride and apathy keep us silent, let’s make the effort to make someone’s day with kindness and encouragement. After all, to quote the song one more time, for Christians, “it seems like the least we can do.”

I exhort, therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. – 1 Timothy 2:1-2

Three weeks into the new year, and I’m just now writing a blog post. That after promising myself – we won’t call it a resolution – that I would get back to writing in my blog this year. I’ve never posted to this blog as consistently as I’d like – though I keep paying the annual fee to keep the domain name – but 2016 was a bad year for writer’s block. Between my husband’s continuing battle with cancer and the state of our nation, motivation to write has been hard to come by.

But just this week, someone new started following my blog, so if for no other reason, I figure I owe it to that kind soul to post something. But where to start?

We have a new president. Not my choice, though he did get my vote. I was a never-Trumper until the very last minute, when I finally decided that I couldn’t contribute in any way to Hillary’s becoming president, nor could I in good conscience abstain from voting. And I have to confess to enjoying a certain amount of unChristian-like schadenfreude at seeing liberals and progressives so flummoxed by Trump’s victory.

But I can’t shake the feeling that we’ve bought a pig in a poke, as the saying goes. And my schadenfreude may soon turn into a bad case of buyer’s remorse.

Still, as we well know, God is in control. Trump’s victory didn’t take Him by surprise. And while I don’t buy the idea – as some seem to – that Trump has undergone some sort of religious conversion, I do know God can work through the ungodly as well as the godly. Our role now, whether we voted for him or not, is to pray that God will work in and through President Trump to bring about good for this nation and the world.