New Year Reservations
Rev. Mark Porizky
1/1/2006
Matthew 6:10-21
How many people have ever made a resolution to do something?
How many people have ever broken more than half the resolutions they have ever made?
How many people have ever made a reservation to do something or be somewhere?
How many people almost always keep a reservation they make?
I learned something interesting this week, which is simply this:
Reservations
more than resolutions have a way of attracting and keeping our focused
attention.
I believe or maybe I wonder is a better way to phrase it if this is so because we put something into reservations, which we expect to get out of them.
I'm
not totally sure why resolutions don't work. What I do know is that we usually
have just as much fun discussing how fast we broke our New Year Resolutions as
we do making one. And that when we break a resolution we are less annoyed than
if a reservation is not kept or met. Think about it for a moment:
When
we reserve a seat at a restaurant - we expect to have the table waiting for
us at the specified time.
When
we reserve a hotel room to go away on vacation - we expect it to be ready
for us when we arrive.
When we reserve a room for a meeting with co-workers in our office complex - we expect it to be ready for the meeting at the specified time.
And if the reservation is not kept or met, whoa to the one who took and did not follow through with the reservation.
You see the key to the reservation is not in the making of a reservation but in the keeping of a reservation. I learned this first hand on yesterday’s plane ride.
Mom…”reserved”
We
all need to spend more time in prayer, in reflection, and in worship, although
your presence here today makes you sort of my “weather warrior” set of
worshippers. But I won’t start
with the obvious, with God. Let me
start elsewhere today, the first day of the year.
Today
we might consider talking with God about those relationships, which are most
important to us. What relationship or relationships are we currently involved
that need our attention? Which relationships do we need to become more present
in? Which ones do we need to attend to?
And
when I speak of attending to a relationship I am not inferring that we look for
"quick-fixes" to situations that have taken in some cases many-many
years to live themselves into the state they are today. The life situations we
find ourselves in usually do not happen overnight and they surely will not go
away over night. Too often we view our relationships like machines or
corporations. We recognize there is a problem…we define the problem…we
strategize about how to correct the problem…we fix the problem…and we move
on to the next problem…all the while hoping the company doesn't lose too much
revenue. Within a business organization we have come to believe that fast is
good.
However,
in relationships the opposite is true. We have to take it more slowly in order
to create a better relationship. We're not just trying to save a company…we're
trying to unite two individual lives for the good of the whole. In relationships
slow is better - except when slow is an excuse to drag ones feet, hoping for
some miraculous change to occur which will save the relationship and not require
any work. Especially when past attempts to bring change have failed and one side
will not or cannot hear the other's point of view.
So
when I speak of attending to a relationship I am not implying that we look for
the quickest and painless way out of a situation. Rather, I mean making the
important relationships in our lives a priority. Especially in those
relationships, which are meant to bring us the greatest joy and satisfaction.
Barb—when
sharing/ often/ “listen”/ “don’t try to fix me, just listen”
Is
there a friendship we need to foster?
Is
there a marriage that needs our concentration?
Is there a parent-child relationship that needs to be our focus for a while?
To
attend to a relationship, I believe means to reserve time in our lives & in
our schedules to consciously, compassionately and creatively work together with
the people whose lives we are involved in.
Now
I know this is not always easy to do. Which is why I remind us of where we
started this morning's message - in God's presence.
Because
I believe that if we make our relationship with God a priority, the spending of
time with the Almighty, that act of prayer makes us more likely to attend to our
other important relationships as well.
I
don’t know why, but I know that it’s true.
A man or a woman who spends time with God will usually be the type of man
or woman who attends to the relationships with those around them.
And
so, I urge you to make a New Year’s Reservation.
Resolutions are for ideas less important.
My
New Year’s Reservation will be to stop at
A
Will you pray with me now?
St.
Andrew Presbyterian Church,
Web Site: SAPC-CT.HOME.ATT.NET
Office Email: SAPC-CT@ATT.NET
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