I have spent the first part of this month trying to quantify what I want to accomplish over the course of this year. I’m not very keen on the the whole ‘resolution’ thing that people tend to cling to this time of year – when people voice their resolutions, they almost always sound like the resolutions of a soldier under fire in a foxhole who is bargaining with God. My approach to moving into this new year is more philosophical:
Step 1 – Pull out my moral compass, dust it off, and make sure to set it down away from all metallic or electronic interference so I can evaluate the discrepancy between the direction in which it is pointed and the direction that I am facing. Trust me – there’s always a discrepancy! Then try to honestly identify how/where I veered off-course and what I need to do to get myself back on the right path.
Step 2 – Once I’m pointed in the right direction (or in the direction of the right direction), I get in touch with my inner resolve to make sure I am moving at a pace that furthers me along the right path with enough momentum to keep my direction true.
So…I’m voting ‘No’ on resolutions and ‘Yes’ on reflection and resolve.
To help keep me appropriately focused and motivated, I have decided to name my own personal patron saint for 2014: Jonah.
Why Jonah? Let me explain. The biblical Jonah is a very flawed man (check). His moral compass points in one direction but he is facing in a very different direction (check). His misdirection stems from being consumed by his own self-worth (check). God sends a little time-out his way in the form of a whale – so Jonah is consumed by something larger than himself long enough to reflect and resolve (check). Jonah exits his detention and circumspection still flawed, but pointed in the right direction having resolved to do the right thing (check). At no point in the story does Jonah make any resolutions to fit back into his size 34” jeans or to try and understand the subtleties and intricacies of Virginia state government or to make it to the gym 4-5 times a week (check – sigh).
It is at this point that the story of Jonah takes an interesting and very important turn. Jonah was a prophet and after his little fishy time-out, he went to do a prophet gig in Nineveh (a big city that was consumed by wickedness just as Jonah had been consumed by his own self-worth). Anyhoo…as the story goes, Jonah went into the core of the city and he did his prophet thing. The force of his actions and his words rippled through the city like wildfire and when those ripples reached the king of Nineveh, he was so moved to act that he not only ordered all the people of Nineveh to dress in sackcloth as an act of contrition, he made sure that even the livestock got dressed in sackcloth as well (hysterical).
Now, before anyone gets too excited, let me be quite clear: I am not a prophet nor do I see myself as a prophet. But I do have my own unique blend of talents and abilities. Choosing Jonah as my personal patron saint for 2014 serves only to remind me of how an imperfect man, once he was pointed in the right direction with sufficient momentum, was able to kick-off a revolutionary change for good.
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