What If We Went After Weightiness?

It's that time of year when we're talking resolutions, and goals, and words for the year. We're talking boldness, and bravery, and brand new as we usher 2016 out the door and welcome 2017.And the most common resolution is no surprise. Lose weight. Gym memberships soar. According to Gold's Gym, their traffic jumps 40% between December and February. And everyone's tossing out the cookies and buying kale.But what if we turned this resolution on its head and went after weightiness this year?

For this light momentary affliction is producing in us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:17-18)

What if we went after weightiness? I'm not making light of real life struggles, pain, fear. They are real. Right now I have one friend who is facing a likely diagnosis of a debilitating and eventually fatal disease. Another whose choice to follow God is bringing intense financial stress. Another whose empty womb is a constant ache.Life is laced with ache.A weightless approach

brushes over the ache,

buries the pain, and

sometimes boasts in the strength to manage whatever it is.

But all of this brushing and burying and boasting is about as effective as a dusty gym bag and rotting kale.  Let's trade common resolutions for uncommon grace and go after weightiness.

Assess the reality. Call it what it is. Don't minimize, and don't make it more than it is. Assess the reality.

Don't withdraw. Pain makes us want to go inward, pull back. Resist that temptation and trust in a friend, or two, or three. Don't withdraw.

Look beyond. And while there are many things I think would be worse than death, even a lifetime of affliction is a parenthetical clause in the book of life.  Look beyond.

Trust God. He really does love you. And his plans really are for good. And he, alone, can take the brutality of the now and infuse it with the fullness of the not yet. These are not trite phrases but bedrock truths that you can count on in your deepest pain. Trust God.

What could 2017 be like if instead of resolving to lose weight, we chose to go after weightiness?