For years I’ve recorded my “New Year’s Resolutions” in my journal. But I’ve found that each list is almost identical to the previous one. Apparently I’ve made virtually no progress, despite my good intentions.
In his book, Changes That Heal: The Four Shifts That Make Everything Better…And That Everyone Can Do, Henry Cloud speaks to the human desire for “self-improvement.”
“The Bible teaches two themes throughout: the first is that we are created in the image of God and that we have incredible value. The second is that we are sinful and broken. There is the ideal, and there is the real. Both are true, and both need to be reconciled into a grace-giving relationship with God and others.”
Even Saint Paul experienced this brokenness:
It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right,
I inevitably do what is wrong. Romans 7:21 Living Bible
“If we demand perfection from ourselves we are not living in the real world…The inherent problem in the relationship between the ideal & the real is that the ideal judges the real as unacceptable and brings down condemnation and wrath on the real. This sets up an adversarial relationship between the two and like all adversaries, they move further and further apart.”
That’s true. When I resolve to lose weight I immediately want lots of chocolate. And when I stumble, those lists accuse me angrily.
“Sometimes we represent our weakness as if it were bad. We don’t think it’s okay to be weak…We have been injured in many ways and our real self houses all of the evidence of those injuries. The pain, the brokenness and the emotional underdevelopment we all possess is part of who we really are.”
God understands us. He understands our weakness. He told Paul,
“My grace is all you need. My power is strongest when you are weak.”
2 Corinthians 12:9a New International Reader’s Version
Then is change possible? Absolutely. God knows we cannot do it for ourselves, so if we let Him, He gently does it in us and for us.
And I am sure that God who began the good work within you will keep right on helping you grow in his grace until his task within you is finally finished on that day when Jesus Christ returns. Philippians 1:6 Living Bible
