At the beginning of the year, our social media spaces are bombarded with adverts on healthy habits such as exercising and eating right. There are marketing videos and pictures of free and paid seminars/ webinars on topics ranging from goal-setting and career progression to time management. Stepping into the stores, in well-positioned aisles, storefronts and shelves, we see journals, planners, small household exercising equipment, lunch bags, bottles and attires for gym and outdoor activities. At the start of the new year, we are motivated to start new habits while hoping to end some old habits and mindsets that have not served us well.

All are working together to get us to engage in the new year with renewed vigour for something different and better. No matter how long you have lived, these sounds are so familiar that we may have even stopped paying attention to these cliches that are repeated at the same time of the year. Echoing the words of the wise king Solomon, That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1:9,

There is also a school of thought and quote stating that doing the same thing and expecting a new result is insanity. Of course, no one will agree that setting a new year’s resolution is insanity until you pry closer and realize there is some truth to that quote, especially on how we set the resolutions. Another thread to this thought is that a significant number of us break our resolutions barely 30 days into the year.

The yearly setting of goals is a good practice in itself, and it is the mindset that makes the whole practice seem fruitless and a waste of time and effort. Rich Villodas, a Pastor and prolific writer challenged this thought by introducing a different practice. He called it the rules of life that transcend time and are sustained through the year. Through his Twitter account, @richvillodas, he challenges us to develop rules of life that impact prayer, self-care community and mission mindsets. Creating the rules of life begins with personally responding to the following four questions – 

• What are the spiritual disciplines you need to anchor your life with God?
• What are the practices of self-care you need to care for your body and nurture your soul?
• What care relationships do you need in this season of life to support you on your journey?
• What are the gifts, passions and burdens within that God want you to express for the blessing of others?

To avoid the insanity of self-fulfilling prophecy of failures of new year’s resolutions, let’s determine to do it differently this year. Instead, create rules of life that will improve your old habits and create new ones that will impact your life to eternity.

Dr. Evelyn Brisibe | Senior Pastor