He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)
Someone on social media asked how we can have an enjoyable
new year with the pandemic. Of course, my first thought was, “That depends on
what you consider enjoyable.” That led me to the question of what I considered enjoyable
about 2020. The answers I ended up giving him were that I enjoyed accomplishing
things, helping (myself and others – but truth told, I tend to enjoy helping others
more,) and learning. I suggested to him that whatever the two or three broad
areas were for him, that he should pursue them.
Science tells us that endorphins make us feel good. They
are responsible for the “high” you feel after working out, and for the “high”
you feel when you’ve helped someone who needed it. They are the body’s response
to stress. So if we want an enjoyable year, we need to stress ourselves. We
need to exercise every part of us. We need to help (do good for) ourselves and
others.
What science tells me, then, is that to have an enjoyable
year, I need to accomplish things, help myself and others, and learn. Yesterday’s
conclusions about what I need to do are to bow the knee, get on my feet, and
hit the ground running. Today’s passage ties in with all of these. What bowing
the knee looks like – in part – is acting justly, loving mercy, and walking
humbly with my God.
Your three broad areas may be different from mine, but
exerting, stressing, or challenging yourself in them will be what makes 2021 a
good year. You may have another way of describing what you sense about next
year, but whatever they are, keep them before you as you head into the year. At
the end of 2021, I’d like to be able to say that I am both exhausted and
energized, or endorphined because I pulled together these ideas.
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