“The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.” –Proverbs 21:5 {ESV}

“Fools are always in a hurry.” –John MacArthur

So did you spit out a resolution for the New Year? This is the unilaterally awkward week of the year where we traditionally declare what we will do and won’t do over the next twelve months. Some declare that they will lose weight. Others pledge to save money. The more reflective among us make spiritual commitments regarding prayer, bible reading, church attendance and gospel witnessing. There are others who, in a moment of sincere intent, decide to lay aside tobacco or alcohol or pornography. No matter what the pledge might be for the new year, we need to recognize this: resolve is humanly determined, repentance is divinely granted.

Give me repentance any year above my own resolutions.

I’m writing from my office this morning for the first time in two weeks. As God allows, I customarily take the last two weeks of each year off from administrative duties and try to wind up the annual calendar with my family who sacrificially shares me the other fifty weeks of the year. I refrain from taking and returning calls, making hospital visits, attending weddings or funerals, keeping counseling rounds, attending staff meetings or anything else that is a normal component of a pastor’s calling. Some of you might be tempted to think that this is an unspiritual thing for a pastor to do, much less chronicle in a written blog. I would only submit to you that even Jesus Christ deemed it fitting to come apart from the crowd and the ministry for brief respites. I am infinitely less sound than He and need the down-time to reconnect with my family, myself and my Lord. The days are long-gone wherein I allow myself to motivated by guilt or the expectation of others while falsely believing that I must hastily hurry through tasks, appointments and duties without rest. Quite frankly, I’m not important enough for the welfare of the Kingdom to hinge that much upon me and I refuse to act like it does. May God grant all sincere believers the release from having to work, work, work in order to prove we are fit specimens. Pastors, we are the worst about this tendency because we live in a fishbowl that welcomes people to look upon our lives. The fish that swims in ceaseless circles with no nourishment for himself will eventually become the fish floating at the top of the water. Though I never want to forfeit my inner sense of urgency, I certainly hope that I don’t live my life in a hurried scurry in order to prove that I’m the real-deal. If I’m ever deemed the real-deal it will be the result of God’s grace and Spirit, not my own resolve and determination.

What will you take time to soak in this year? Have you planned on slowing down at all in an area of importance? Will this be the ninth year in a row, sir, that you will prove to your family how devoted you are to your career as you also prove how incidental your family remains to you? Many will run past spiritual opportunities to get to the gym to improve their bodies every morning or evening. Others will fastidiously plan their stock investments while rushing past their bibles week after week. We hurry at relationships and linger over self…and later wonder why we feel the emptiness. My counsel for us all today is to repent over this. I indeed believe it to be a sin to rush through life while scarcely noting the things which God has made valid and lasting. Don’t resolve to do better; repent and turn to that which God has deemed best. It’s not about doing, it’s about believing and being. Let us not wait for God to enforce stillness and slowness upon us by way of some troubling event. Let’s answer the call to be still and slower before Him today. Linger at His throne without checking your wristwatch. He often speaks in whispers and whispers cannot be discerned while sprinting. Whispers require stoppage. Whispers involve stillness. Whispers are only heard apart from the chaos and the crowds. How long has it been since you’ve heard Him whisper something to you?

He has resolved to lead you — that’s the resolution that we should think upon. Our response? Repent and follow because He’s heading somewhere good.