January 1, 2016
Every time the end of the year rolls around someone invariably brings up the topic of New Year’s resolutions. Local TV news crews send out street reporters to grab passersby by the elbow and ask, “Are you making any resolutions this year? What are they?” And the people are always more than happy to comply.
The only thing is, resolutions tend to be funny little things. People either love them or they hate them. They make them or they don’t. The ones who make resolutions do so with lofty dreams and pie-in-the-sky visions of the new and better life they’re going to have. The folks who don’t make resolutions make fun of the folks who do because most of those who make resolutions fail to keep them. Revolutions, on the other hand, tend to start out as funny little things but end up being big things.
Resolutions begin as ideas that a person’s good is something that’s separate from them, something that is a future event, existing in a nebulous “yet to be.” That’s why they don’t usually work out for the people who make them. When one sees something as being in the future, that’s where it tends to stay. When an idea is seen as belonging the future, there’s not much incentive to do anything other than wait for it to take place. People give up on their good because it takes too long to manifest. They don’t have the patience to do the work and then await the outcome. We live in a society of instant gratification and if we have to wait much longer than a day, then it’s too long a wait. Microwave ovens and high speed internet have spoiled us in that respect.
Revolutions begin when people realize that the good they desire to see in their lives is already existent. They realize that all that needs done is the necessary legwork to bring it fully into material reality. “Heaven helps those who help themselves,” the old saying goes. That’s how revolutions get off the ground. People take the idea and run with it. They do what’s needed to make it happen. What most people don’t realize is that change, REAL change, is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s like a farmer planting seeds and then waiting for the harvest. The crops don’t grow overnight. They aren’t ready for reaping immediately. The seeds require time to germinate and to grow and to ripen. Likewise, revolutions don’t happen overnight. The events that spark them may take place in an instant, but often the entire process of change takes a bit of time and patience.
So, you say you have something in your life you want to change. You’ve got something you want to improve upon. Don’t make a resolution…decide on a revolution. The time is now, not in a far off some day. You can choose to start now. Making that choice is the first step in the revolutionary process. By not choosing to begin, you’re actually working on a resolution.
Surely, someone’s going to say, “I made a resolution to do this or that, and it happened.” That’s because the moment you actually take the first step in making that resolution come to pass, the moment you actually DO something tangible to help the process along, you move from resolution thinking to revolution thinking. Kudos to those to take that first step. Those are the ones who realize the desired change and their continued choice in the matter is what keeps the revolution successful.
In his seminal work The Science of Mind, Ernest Holmes writes, “There is no stagnation in Spirit…” The drive of Spirit, the Universe, God, and thus of ourselves, is toward circulation and flow. As English metaphysician Thomas Troward wrote, “My mind is a center of Divine operation. The Divine operation is always for expansion and fuller expression, and this means the production of something beyond what has gone before, something entirely new, not included in past experiences, though proceeding out of it. Therefore, since the Divine cannot change its inherit nature, it must operate in the same manner with me; consequently, in my own special world, of which I am the center, it will move forward to produce new conditions, always in advance of any that have gone before.”
How do what Holmes and Troward wrote about the lack of stagnation, expansion, and fuller expression fit into the revolution mindset? We are always at the moment of choice. Always. Each moment is an opportunity to say, “I desire to see this thing happen and here’s what I’m going to do to start the process.” By the same token, you could say, “Here’s a new moment and I can make a choice. I think I’ll choose to remain stuck right where I am.” It’s all up to you. Are you going to stay in the rut of your life, or are you going to rise up and move above that which has gone before? Are you staying with the herd, or are you going to venture out into something greater?
A source you might find useful in moving from resolution thinking to revolution thinking is Raymond Charles Barker’s The Power of Decision. Barker describes how failing to decide on what you really desire for yourself, and then neglecting to follow up on that desire with concrete action, is a decision for failure.
In the Sixties the Beatles sang, “You say you want a revolution, well, you know, we all want to change the world.” They go on to sing, “…when you talk about destruction, don’t you know that you can count me out,” and “…if you want money for people with minds that hate, all I can tell is brother you have to wait.” They’re speaking of moving into that revolution mindset. Finally, they admonish, “You tell me it’s the institution, well, you know, you’d better free you mind instead.”
Don’t make a resolution. Instead, free your mind. Move out of limited thinking and into something greater. Build on the ruins of failed belief systems and expand into fuller expression. Make a revolution instead. You can do this. Happy 2016.
If there’s any way I can be of service to you, if you need a friendly ear and some prayer support, let me know. Just email me at revjeff@GIATI-Ministries.org. If you’d like some in-depth counseling or coaching support, I’m here to help. Fees to the ministry are reasonable. No one is ever turned away for an inability to pay. Just email me and set up an appointment for me to call you. (Be sure to include your phone number!) If you have been spiritually fed and care to bless GIATI Ministries with a financial gift, donations can be made through PayPal using the email address iamspiritexpressing@yahoo.com
Much love and many blessings!
Rev. Jeff Radcliff 