St. Paul's Episcopal Church issued the following announcement on Jan 6.
Normally, convincing people to take a hard, honest look at their lives is a challenge. We don’t want to be reminded of our flaws. We don’t like thinking about all the ways that we have missed the mark. All our lives, we have been taught to cover up the shortcomings and accentuate the positives, and our culture reinforces that at nearly every turn. Grocery stores have a hard time selling blemished fruit even though it tastes just as good. We post on social media only the photographs that hide the pile of torn wrapping paper and our disheveled hair even though everyone else’s Christmas morning looks just as chaotic as ours. There is hardly a moment when we can let our guard down and be honest with ourselves and others.
The big exception is New Year’s. Though the church invites us to contemplate our mortality on Ash Wednesday, the secular world does that naturally at the beginning of each year. Commercials for exercise equipment and gym memberships help fuel this introspective season. After eating our way through the holidays, we admit to ourselves that we need to lose weight and may even dust off the bathroom scales to see how much. As the glitz of the last few weeks fades, we recognize our desire to deepen our connections with the things that really matter and decide to make a change. We resolve that this year will be different. We start walking, journaling, or praying every day. We start a new diet or stop drinking. Sometimes we take on new habits that stick, but more often we abandon them rather quickly.
Original source can be found here.
Source: St. Paul's Episcopal Church
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