Brick by Boring Brick

A photograph of some castle ruins that I saw in Wales during my family's tour of the UK in Christmas 2006.

Well, Christmas has passed; I'm sure all of you are perfectly aware of this. But, guess what time it is now that the holiday season is almost completely over? NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION TIME! Now that we've spent the last month celebrating the most joyous and exciting time of the year, we feel very ready to conquer the world and defeat our besetting sins, all in one fell swoop. 

In fact, if you're anything like me, you probably imagine this process of starting over and conquering weaknesses to be an empowering, exciting time. I always like to think of acing my New Year's resolution in a way that resembles the two-minute long sequence in Kung Fu Panda in which Po is training to be the dragon warrior and instantaneously becomes a kung fu master. This part of the movie is complete with flashy scene shifts, thrilling Asian-infused Zimmer/Powell music, and no real effort. 

But, in the end, New Year's resolutions aren't anything like that, are they? Our sins are so deeply engrained into our lives in so many different ways; as much as we'd like to just snap our fingers and change for the better as soon as the clock hits midnight on January 1st, we really can't. 

This whole concept reminds me of an old (well, old in my relative time frame), but very catchy song by the secular pop group Paramore, called "Brick by Boring Brick". The entire song is pretty much summed up in its chorus:

"Well go get your shovel

And we'll dig a deep hole
To bury the castle, bury the castle

Go get your shovel
And we'll dig a deep hole
We'll bury the castle, bury the castle"

"The castle" is referring to the fairy tales that we build up for ourselves, which are closely related to New Year's resolutions in some ways. See, at the beginning of every year, we imagine ourselves as fitter, happier, healthier, smarter, and greater individuals. This is similar to the imaginary happy endings that we can see in our favorite Disney films and fairy tales. 

Of course, I'm not trying to say that your New Year's resolutions are impossible and fanciful; it just seems that we need to start viewing our sin-conquering goals and desires to become more like Jesus in a different way. But, what should this new angle to the problem be?

Paramore gives us an answer in their song, believe it or not...

"Well make sure to build your home brick by boring brick
Or the world's gonna blow it down"

In other words, building up a beautiful castle and getting what you've always dreamed of isn't an instantaneous shift; it's a PROCESS. The Bible discusses this too:

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."

Galatians 6:9

This all sounds so terribly hard, yes. But unlike what the song lyrics seem to say, WE don't need to build our own homes and crawl out of our sin problems by ourselves:

"We have escaped like a bird
    from the fowler’s snare;
the snare has been broken,
    and we have escaped.
8 Our help is in the name of the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth."

Psalm 124:7-8

Let's think of our resolutions in a new way this year. Instead of just flying forward on a high of candy cane sugar and leftover Christmas spirit, let's begin to pray for something crazy: patience. Why? Well, because this is a process; it's a lifelong, step-by-step, brick-by-boring-brick type of thing. This sounds sad, yes, but if we decide to just trust our Creator every single day and stop worrying about how long it will take to build the castle, it can become a joyous journey. 

As Psalm 116:7-9 says,

 "Let my soul be at rest again,

    for the Lord has been good to me.
8 He has saved me from death,
    my eyes from tears,
    my feet from stumbling.
9 And so I walk in the Lord’s presence
    as I live here on earth!"

(NLT)

His presence is enough; it will keep us content throughout the long process of becoming more like Him. So, day by day, let's "taste and see that the LORD is good." (Psalm 34:8)

And as the Paramore song goes...

"If it's not real

You can't hold it in your hand
You can't feel it with your heart
And I won't believe it
But if it's true
You can see it with your eyes
Oh, even in the dark
And that's where I want to be"

So this New Year's Day, as you are thinking through your resolutions, remember to SEE His presence first (you'll be sure to find it if you just open your eyes and look), pray for Him to give you patience in the process of your life change, and ask Him to always give your soul rest, in the bright and dark times.  

As 2015 dawns, let's keep this beautiful verse in our minds and on our hearts...

"Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord."

Romans 7:24-25a (NLT)