A New Year’s Resolution To Do Less

Posted on Jan 1, 2016 in Jordan's Journal, pastors pen, Sermons & Blogs |

Happy New Year! Our baby girl is going to be born any day now. I guess she liked 2016 better than she liked 2015.

Every new year brings excitement and anticipation for what could be. 2015 brought many changes for my family. Jamie and I went from wondering where we were going to live and what we were going to do, to finding have a place where we want to spend the rest of our lives if He so desires. That place is the center of His will which right now has us serving the amazing people at Hope Fellowship Church. God has blessed us with new life as we have been anxiously anticipating the coming birth of my first daughter. I’ve learned that God’s timing is best. He knew when the right time was for me to come to Hope Fellowship Church. And God knows the right time for my daughter to be born. This 2016, I will be celebrating a fresh start trusting in God’s perfect will for my life.

I want to give you a sneak peek at our first sermon of 2016, entitled A Fresh Start: A New Beginning With God. The challenge of this sermon is to rethink our New Year’s Resolutions. Instead of always thinking about how you can do more, this year I want to challenge you to DO LESS. Yes, that sure sounds like an odd New Year’s Resolution, but please allow me to explain.

I read a few days ago about New Year’s resolutions. The article pointed out that most New Year’s Resolutions are inwardly focused. Lose weight. Make more money. Get better grades. There is nothing wrong with these and in fact many of us should probably seek to change certain bad habits in our lives. Yet most of the time these resolutions require us to start doing more. Resolutions motivate us to do more, run faster, work harder, be better, and keep up with the Joneses. But consider this thought as you consider choosing a New Year’s resolution.

Maybe this year instead of choosing to do more you should choose to do less.

The wisest man to ever live, King Solomon, said this, “Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind” (Ecc. 4:6). Since when is one hand better than two hands? I know this year I would certainly rather have two hands full of something than just one hand. But you see a wise man sees life with two hands. One hand is for working, toiling, and honest labor and the other hand is for giving back. When both my hands are full of toiling and working then I never have any time to lend a helping hand. I’m never able to use that free hand to build relationships with others, my family, or the lost. I am too busy. After-all, “I’ve got my hands full.”

Solomon is warning us against the dangers of always having both of our hands full of things that are vain, like striving after something you’ll never catch: the wind. He says, better is a handful of quietness. Quietness could also be translated as rest, calm, or patience. So think about this practically. Maybe you might need to cut back in a few areas in order to find your rest so you can start to give back. When was the last time you read your Bible? When was the last time you prayed for your family? When was the last time you volunteered to serve God’s people at your church? I’m too busy, is often the cry of our American dream mentality. Yet, Solomon’s wisdom says, let go and let God.

So I challenge you this year to find a handful of quietness. The best place to find that quietness is to find it with God. In the hustle and bustle of life it is easy to get distracted from our relationship with the God of the universe. We say, “hang on God, I’m too busy right now.” God says to us, “Be still and know that I am God.” So this year, be still, slow down, do less, because when you do, you are able to do more.