Still Considering Your New Year’s Resolution? Make It A Mercy Resolution

It’s that time again. Time to deal with the commercials persuading us to start a healthy diet and join a gym so we can get in-shape and lose weight… or time to invest in an opportunity that will make us more money, build self-confidence, make more friends outside of Facebook – all in an effort to become happier.

These are fine resolutions and admirable goals. But let’s face it; most of us consider those same resolutions year after year, and what’s worse is that we rarely make it to February before we give up or simply forget about those decisions. Before we know it, 2017 will be rolling around and we’ll confidently re-commit ourselves to those same resolutions once again!

This New Year, let’s try something different.

Let’s pull a 180 on our resolutions by taking the attention off ourselves and place it on others—especially those who are most in need: the sick, the homeless, the refugee, the hungry, those without clean water and the imprisoned. Let’s come together as one human family and put aside our pride and prejudices in 2016, and challenge each other to “Go serve.”

2016 can be a game-changer! After all, it’s an election year. But, no matter who we elect as our next U.S. president, there’s another person who is having profound effect on our country and culture—Pope Francis.

Agree or disagree with his unscripted and often radical approach in teaching the theological doctrines of the Catholic Church, it’s difficult to argue that he is trying his best to emulate Jesus, who Christians believe was sent by God to earth not to judge and condemn, but to convict people of their sins and show them how to love, unconditionally.

Pope Francis is a man with a servant’s heart, who genuinely seeks to serve others rather than be served—and that’s what he’s asking each of us to do in 2016, by declaring 2016 as the Year of Mercy.

For a practicing Catholic, there’s plenty of spiritual renewal and complicity attached to this Jubilee Year.

“There is an aspect of mercy that goes beyond the confines of the Church,” writes Pope Francis. “It relates us to Judaism and Islam, both of which consider mercy to be one of God’s most important attributes.  Israel was the first to receive this revelation, which continues in history as the source of an inexhaustible richness meant to be shared with all mankind…

“I trust that this Jubilee year celebrating the mercy of God will foster an encounter with these religions and with other noble religious traditions; may it open us to even more fervent dialogue so that we might know and understand one another better; may it eliminate every form of closed-mindedness and disrespect, and drive out every form of violence and discrimination.” (Par. 23, Misericordiae Vultus)

This is also an invitation to the un-churched and non-believer; to people of good intention who feel a certain union and alliance with how a resolution of mercy—to perform acts of mercy toward the least among us in 2016—can prove not only as a betterment for others and for society overall, but may very well provide an improved quality of life for ourselves, along with a profound and lasting happiness that can only come through giving back.

So, here’s a challenge…

The 2016 Mercy Challenge is a wonderful way to give back and serve others while growing immensely as a person. The Challenge is designed for you to either do alone, as a family or as a larger group of people.

Go to www.2016Mercy.com, choose your Challenge wristbands and get started!

We have all year to complete Seven Acts of Mercy. After completing each action, give away your wristband and “challenge” that person on social media to perform the same task you did. Use #mercyinmotion so we can track the actions.  Let’s start a Mercy Resolution!