Show Notes
Welcome to the final episode of season 3 of Small Wonders! A new year approaches - and for many, a new set of resolutions.
Reading, going to the gym, travelling, lifestyle changes: all of us have a “possible self” that we strive towards.
It turns out we’ve been making New Year resolutions for a very long time - at least 4,000 years in fact, according to ancient Babylonian records.
Humans have always pursued personal growth.
We’ve also spent millennia breaking New Year resolutions.
However, it's not as dire as you might think: statistics show that most people who make resolutions keep at least part of them.
The notion of the possible self is often related to both hopes - and fears - for the future.
Hope and fear: the possible is connected to them both.
The possible self is also a theme in the Bible, but a possible self is firmly reliant on Him through whom all things are possible.
The way to the best possible self - the eternal one - comes through the humble servant, encountered in the Gospels. "Going a little farther, (Jesus) fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Matthew 26: 39
More from Small Wonders
A trip to Western Australia brought Laurel to the famous Busselton Jetty - a 1.8 km timber-piled jetty stretching out into the Indian Ocean - the longest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. Initially built for practicality, the jetty is now a tourist destination and even features on postcards. The way it reaches out with such purpose is similar to prayer - an extension towards the eternal. But the main difference, of course, is the fact that we didn’t build the jetty between us and God. He did. But we still get to enjoy it. We can walk its length at any given moment and commune with Him.
In Romans 12, the Apostle Paul has a challenge for Christians: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- His good, pleasing, and perfect will.”
Along York Lane in the Sydney CBD are alcoves and recessed doorways set into the buildings. It was in one of these recessed doorways where a man named Karl used to live (or rather, sleep). Hundreds of people passed Karl every day - and sadly, in 2013, Karl died in his sleep, exposed on York Lane. However, in a remarkable postscript, his long-lost brother, who had been searching for Karl for decades, finally found him. And he brought him home. "My son," the father said, "you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." - Gospel of Luke, Chapter 15
The gap between what an Ibis is made for and what it does in the city becomes very apparent once you see it in its natural habitat. The Ibis is made to roam marshlands and use their elegant bills to dig for crayfish and mussels - not for scraps of rubbish in bins. But like these birds, we also often lose sight of the type of world we are made for and how we are meant to be. We can’t find the answer to who we are meant to be by looking within ourselves, but we can find it in God. ‘Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love’ the Psalmist writes in Psalm 51. ‘Cleanse me with hyssop, and I shall be clean … create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.’
No matter how well things may seem, everyone faces times of testing where every day can feel like wading through thick sludge. But these challenges can also sometimes be, like molasses, unexpectedly sweet.