Back To Basics

https://odb.org/MY/2022/01/05/back-to-the-basics-2

Today’s post is another slant on New Year resolutions. In my post just 3 days ago, https://ronnielim.com/2022/01/02/fresh-start/, I wrote about the need to hear God’s Word for us and make that our New Year’s resolution. What is God speaking to us for 2022? What’s Christ message for us for this new year?

But I guess not everyone is good at hearing from God or perhaps we are in the process of still learning how to do that accurately. So basically we are a little fuzzy as to what God is saying to us. Maybe we need more time to get this right. Or maybe the grind has started and we are busy back at the grind, catching up on work as our colleagues and bosses start to return to work. Is there a viable solution out of this quagmire, this predicament?

One solution is to perhaps put up achievable New Year’s resolutions like smiling more or wave at people more or be gentler on the road. While these are certainly achievable – these are perhaps just cheeky bordering on sarcasm. Maybe it is good to fill up words in a blog but I think quite meaningless in the personal context. Why? Because an easily achievable goal is not a goal. We are just doing what we are doing. It cannot be a resolution to wake up at 8.00 am if we are already doing so? There is no stretch and thus no progress. No improvement. It’s status quo.

However, from another perspective, an achievable goal is perhaps still acceptable if couched as going back to basics. This is what Ezekial is talking about in chapter 45 of his book – “give up your oppression and violence against the people, offer your burnt offerings, observe the festivals”. In our present context, read the Word daily (instead of resolving to finish the whole bible in 2022), pray and spend quiet time with God (instead of allocating 1 hour a day to pray and worship God), serve God in church and doing social work (instead of putting in 5 hours weekly to do ministry and welfare work).

Perhaps a good New Year’s resolution for us is to do the basics first as we, in parallel and concurrently, seek God’s Word for us for 2022. I believe the return to basics will help us hear Jesus better and thus help us to receive our “commission” for 2022 from the Lord of Hosts. With that, I wish everyone all the best in hearing from God and in your fulfilling of God’s plan for you in 2022!