{"id":26313,"date":"2025-12-31T10:59:41","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T15:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=26313"},"modified":"2025-12-31T11:27:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T16:27:13","slug":"26313","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=26313","title":{"rendered":"Wisdom for a New Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Restless (Audrey Assad)- Lyric Video\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PWABbBRY1gc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>[Jesus] burnt himself out totally, like a candle, to give light to the people living under the power of darkness<br>\u2014Choan-Seng Song,&nbsp;<em>Jesus, The Crucified People<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Father Richard encourages us to find the wisdom revealed in the paradoxical nature of reality.<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the last day of the year, I generally withdraw to pray. A few years ago, I asked myself: What should I pray for this year? What do we need in these turbulent times? Naturally, I was strongly tempted to pray for more love. But it occurred to me that I\u2019ve met so many people in the world who are already full of love and who really care for others. <strong>Maybe what we lack isn\u2019t love but wisdom.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We all want to love, but as a rule we don\u2019t know how to love rightly. How should we love so that life will really come from it? The answer to that question requires wisdom. I\u2019m very disappointed that the Church has passed on so little wisdom. We\u2019ve t<strong>ypically taught people to think that they\u2019re right\u2014or that they\u2019re wrong. We\u2019ve mandated things or forbidden them, but we haven\u2019t helped people enter upon the narrow and dangerous path of true wisdom.<\/strong> <strong>On wisdom\u2019s path we take the risk of making mistakes. On this path we take the risk of being wrong. That\u2019s how wisdom is gained.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It looks as if we will always live in a world that is a mixture of good and evil. Jesus called it a field in which wheat and weeds grow alongside each other. We say, \u201cLord, shouldn\u2019t we go and rip out the weeds?\u201d But Jesus says: \u201cNo, if you try to do that, you\u2019ll probably rip the wheat out along with the weeds. Let both grow alongside each other in the field till harvest\u201d (Matthew 13:24\u201330). <strong>We need a lot of patience and humility to live with a field of both weeds and wheat in our own souls.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus came to teach us the way of wisdom. He brought us a message that offers to liberate us from both the lies of the world and the lies lodged in ourselves. The words of the Gospels create an alternative consciousness, solid ground on which we can really stand, free from every social order and from every ideology. Jesus called this new foundation the reign of God, and he said it is something that takes place in this world and yet will never be completed in this world. This is where faith comes in. It\u2019s so rare to find ourselves trusting\u2014not in the systems and -isms of this world\u2014but standing at a place where we offer our bit of salt, leaven, and light. Even then, we have no security that we\u2019re really right. This means that we have to stand in an inconspicuous, mysterious place, a place where we\u2019re not sure that we\u2019re sure, where we are comfortable knowing that we do not know very much at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/app-link\/post?publication_id=3367802&amp;post_id=182858685&amp;utm_source=post-email-title&amp;utm_campaign=email-post-title&amp;isFreemail=true&amp;r=2dkj2&amp;token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjozOTkyMzY2LCJwb3N0X2lkIjoxODI4NTg2ODUsImlhdCI6MTc2NzE4Njk2MiwiZXhwIjoxNzY5Nzc4OTYyLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMzM2NzgwMiIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.yK62g5xSnZYYZKCCFWmR_0P0rxXiCGNiexJV58Z4k6g\">New Year&#8217;s Longings<\/a><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Leaving &#8220;Resolutions&#8221; Behind | Listening From The Heart<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/@chuckdegroat\">CHUCK DEGROAT<\/a>DEC 31<\/td><td><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/@chuckdegroat\"><\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Every January, we\u2019re handed the same script.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lose weight.<br>Drink less.<br>Pray more.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve already received an email asking, \u201cChuck, what do you&nbsp;<em>resolve<\/em>&nbsp;to do beginning on January 1?\u201d And they\u2019ll gladly sell me their book on bettering myself.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>New Year\u2019s resolutions are often built on sheer willpower, even mind over matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>YOU CAN DO THIS the headline reads, with 20 people on gym bicycles at 5:30am. But you\u2019re just trying to catch a few extra minutes of sleep at that time after your kid comes wandering in saying, \u201cMommy, is it morning yet?\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the subtle message if you fail at resolving to be your best you?&nbsp;<em>Shame on you for not trying harder.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This can\u2019t be it, friends.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What if the deeper invitation of the new year isn\u2019t exhausting effort, but attunement?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not pushing through, but listening deeply?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">From Resolutions to Longings<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Resolutions ask: What\u00a0<em>should\u00a0<\/em>I do differently this year?<br>Longings ask: What is\u00a0<em>stirring<\/em>\u00a0within me?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that\u2019s not a small shift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Gospels, <strong>Jesus doesn\u2019t offer transformation-by-checklist.<\/strong> Rather, he offers a Beatitude vision of the kind of<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong> happy<em>\u00a0(read: flourishing and whole)<\/em><\/strong><\/span>person you can become <strong>by taking the unlikeliest path: surrender, grief, humility, desire, mercy, integrity, shalom, and securit<\/strong>y. And throughout his public ministry, Jesus asks one sort of question, over and over\u2014a question so simple and so disarming that you might miss it while looking for to-do lists:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cWhat do you want?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No, it\u2019s a not a \u2018what do you want for Christmas\u2019 kind of question. It\u2019s asking: At your depths, what you most deeply long for?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And it\u2019s an invitation to begin anew, not in wearying willpower but soul-empowering grace.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Grace and Desire<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The great early church saint Augustine once mused, \u201cThe desire for grace is the beginning of grace.\u201d I read it like this:&nbsp;<em>Grace isn\u2019t passive.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We too often juxtapose will and grace, as if the latter is passive. It\u2019s not. Augustine reminds us that the wide open field of grace reveals itself in-and-through our desires. After all, as he famously said elsewhere, <strong>\u201cOur hearts are restless until they find their rest in God.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>CS Lewis said something similar: longing is a&nbsp;<em>signal<\/em>, a&nbsp;<em>homing beacon<\/em>, an&nbsp;<em>echo<\/em>&nbsp;of Eden. It\u2019s a reminder that your heart still pulses within, that beneath the mad and mundane of your everyday life is a hunger for goodness.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Grace awakens in your heart as desire, as you tap into an underground current, one that never stops flowing even if you live unaware of it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What if\u00a0<em>tuning in<\/em>\u00a0was the call of the new year?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Working&nbsp;<em>With<\/em>&nbsp;the Body, Not Against It<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>This posture of longing doesn\u2019t just make theological sense, it makes physiological sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So much of our resolution-making assumes that our bodies are obstacles to overcome. If we could just outthink our anxiety, override our exhaustion, or push past our limits, then we\u2019d finally become the people we want to be.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhere there\u2019s a will there\u2019s a way,\u201d my Mom used to say. By late January or early February, however, we\u2019ve only lost momentum and found exhaustion.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But our nervous systems don\u2019t change through force. And our longings don\u2019t awaken in the fight-or-flight hustle of chronic sympathetic nervous system activation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our hearts awaken amidst the tender conditions of&nbsp;<em>safety, attunement, and connection,<\/em><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>as I\u2019ve written about in&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/55ce2ae0-ccac-40e5-9a27-14f3e3b36dc5?j=eyJ1IjoiMmRrajIifQ.ND0qR5RKsmVnltuWgIlyr3BY7uwq2Kt9ZzX29UJK4cg\">Healing What\u2019s Within.<\/a><\/em>&nbsp;Here, connected to our nervous system\u2019s \u201cHome\u201d state, as I call it, psyche and soma unite in a dance of desire, opening us to goodness, to hope, even to the kinds of internally-aligned choices that manifest in deep and lasting change.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>How do I retune to Home?<\/em>&nbsp;you ask. Consider:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Where do I notice a gentle inner&nbsp;<em>yes<\/em>\u2026in my body, not just my thoughts?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What does my heart most&nbsp;<em>need<\/em>&nbsp;right now\u2026connection, rest, belonging, meaning, dignity?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What relationships or practices give me&nbsp;<em>life<\/em>\u2026and which quietly drain it?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Which choices reflect my&nbsp;<em>truest<\/em>&nbsp;self, and which are coping strategies in disguise?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What is the one&nbsp;<em>core<\/em>&nbsp;thing I long for amidst the many things that demand my attention?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What is one small, faithful&nbsp;<em>step<\/em>&nbsp;today that honors my heart, body, and mind?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Not ten sure-fire steps. Not a mind-over-matter plan to change your life in 30 days.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But tender, gentle, attuned movements of listening&nbsp;<em>attentively<\/em>&nbsp;and acting&nbsp;<em>intentionally<\/em>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the kind of inner spiritual and emotional formation that works with us in both body and soul, not against us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Different Way Into the New Year<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Like some of you, I live under the weight of all the should\u2019s.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I should put that Planet Fitness membership we have to good use and get to the gym more regularly, I should manage my time better, I should clean up my inbox every week, I should stop snacking in the evenings, I should commit to justice-keeping and peace-making in concrete ways, and I should save more money.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I feel the anxious churn underneath, even the whispers of, \u201cThe calendar is turning\u2014now\u2019s your chance, Chuck!\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Resolutions often collapse under the weight of unrealistic expectations. Longings, by contrast, are sustainable. They meet us where we actually are. This is reflected in the <strong>spiritual practice of creating a\u00a0<em>Rule of Life<\/em>, which (ironically) isn\u2019t about hard-and-fast rules at all, but about stepping into what we\u00a0<em>long for\u00a0<\/em>and what aligns most deeply with our\u00a0<em>hearts and values\u00a0<\/em>in various areas\u2014our relationships, our work, our justice-keeping, our body-tending, our everyday spending, our hobbies, and more<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Imagine that list I just shared articulated as longing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>I&nbsp;<em>long<\/em>&nbsp;to inhabit my body with greater care and vitality, moving in ways that help me feel grounded and alive.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I&nbsp;<em>long<\/em>&nbsp;for my days to feel more spacious and intentional, rather than hurried and fragmented.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I&nbsp;<em>long<\/em>&nbsp;for clarity and lightness in my work life, releasing what no longer needs my constant attention.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I&nbsp;<em>long<\/em>&nbsp;to end my days feeling settled and nourished, not reaching for food to soothe exhaustion or unease.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I&nbsp;<em>long<\/em>&nbsp;to live with a steady commitment to justice and peace, expressed through faithful, concrete practices rather than abstract ideals.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I&nbsp;<em>long<\/em>&nbsp;for a deeper sense of sufficiency and trust, so that money becomes a tool for freedom rather than a source of anxiety.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Imagine, then, awakening each day to these longings, with&nbsp;<em>attention<\/em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>intention<\/em>&nbsp;given to living in alignment with them. Instead of awakening to a list, I\u2019m awakening to my heart.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If, as Augustine says, \u201cthe desire for grace is the beginning of grace,\u201d then when my actions don\u2019t match my deepest longings, I don\u2019t beat myself up\u2014I return to my longings.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s a posture I adopted for myself more than 25 years ago, not after reading some self-help book, but after reading theologian Cornelius Plantinga\u2019s stirring book on&nbsp;<em>sin<\/em>, of all things<em>.&nbsp;<\/em>There are few passages I\u2019ve quoted more over the years than this one from the book:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p><em>\u201cWhat does a spiritually whole person look like?<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>A spiritually whole person longs in certain classical ways. She longs for God and the beauty of God, for Christ and Christlikeness, for the power of the Holy Spirit and spiritual maturity. She longs for spiritual health itself\u2014and not just as a consolation prize when she cannot be rich and envied instead. She longs for other human beings: she wants to love them and to be loved by them. She hungers for social justice. She longs for nature, for its beauties and graces, for the sheer particularity of the way of a squirrel with a nut. As we might expect, her longings dim from season to season. When they do, she longs to long again.\u201d \u2013 Cornelius Plantinga, Not The Way It\u2019s Supposed To Be: A Breviary On Sin<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s an extraordinary vision. But notice what he doesn\u2019t say\u2014he doesn\u2019t say, \u201cWhen her longings dim, she beats herself up for not doing better.\u201d Rather, Plantinga says, \u201cshe longs to long again.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Such&nbsp;<em>grace<\/em>. Even for you, and even when the best laid plans seem to fail.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Perhaps the most faithful question in this season isn\u2019t: What should I change?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But rather:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>What is my heart quietly longing for?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Jesus] burnt himself out totally, like a candle, to give light to the people living under the power of darkness\u2014Choan-Seng Song,&nbsp;Jesus, The Crucified People Father Richard encourages us to find the wisdom revealed in the paradoxical nature of reality.&nbsp; On the last day of the year, I generally withdraw to pray. A few years ago, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26313"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26313"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26320,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26313\/revisions\/26320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}