Embrace the possibility of permanent change, and of permanently changing!
By this, I don’t mean that “change is a process.” Many say this to excuse never really changing. If a husband commits adultery, the wife doesn’t want to hear, “Baby, I can’t change over night. It’s a process for me to stop having sex with the other woman.” No husband wants to hear from his adulteress wife, “Sweetie, change takes time. I’m addicted to the other man, and addictions don’t just go away.”
Change implies an immediate and permanent stopping of one thing while starting a completely different thing!
Having said that, some feel that if they fail on January 2nd, then it all went to hell!
“Forget it!”
“It’s just like 2012!”
This is not true if they embraced the possibility of permanently changing. They must see at least this one thing as a new beginning: They will no longer yield to that which they want to change! The cigarette smoker used to embrace and love smoking in 2012. Now they consider smoking a vile enemy that they must resist, even if they die trying. That is a real change! Or maybe they already considered smoking an enemy in 2012, but didn’t defeat it then. The real change can be a change in strategy. Surely they learned something in 2012 that they can use as a means to the end of a different approach.
The point is this: even if the change isn’t immediately experienced as permanent, the mindset to resist can be permanent. They shouldn’t let a failure destroy the newness of this year and this day. They should know that even if they fail (which they should try not to do), the change of mind is permanent. The resolve to defeat this enemy this year is permanent.
Those who want a real new beginning should embrace the real change, the possibility of permanent change, and the possibility of permanently changing. They need not fear the New Year as a guarantee of failed resolution. All they need is to trust the God with whom all is possible. Then all will be possible with them who believe in Him.
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