4 New Year's Resolutions for a Make a Difference Life

Jesse:
Hey friends, this is Jesse, producer for Go Mad with Doug and Brad. We hope you had a wonderful Christmas. Brad is out this episode, so Doug and Ron Hutchcraft are in the studio for today's podcast.

After sorting through some vintage Hutchcraft New Year's resolutions across sticks, yes, across sticks. Doug and Ron discuss how to leverage the new year to go mad more than ever. Ready to go?

Let's go mad.

Doug:
Hey, welcome to the brand new podcast episode with your host here, Doug. And right across the table from me. A host with the most who is um not Brad. In fact, he is Dad. So we can actually call rather than go mad with Doug and Brad today, it's go mad with Doug

Ron:
And Dad, I think some of you guys might know Ron Hutchcraft.

Doug:
Dad, how are you doing today?

Ron:
I am doing fine. I don't know what happened to your brother. Is he still opening presents? What in the world?

Doug:
He is he already he already started his New Year New Year's resolution. He's been on a treadmill for the last three days.

Ron:
He's looking for a third job to pay for the Christmas presents. That's what it is.

Doug:
So that's that's all you need to know. Uh y these uh resolutions of course every every year they come around you kind of go away. And go away.

Well that that's funny because check this out. So I I Googled this and got some statistics for you. So check this out.

95% of resolutions are fitness related. That is not a surprise. Forty-three percent of people expect their resolutions to fail by February.

That's not a good combo. When they're making when they're making it they've given up before they start. 80% of new gym members quit.

within five months. And there's actually experts there there there are reasons for this. Are you ready?

Uh no no. So number three, of course these are almost always fitness related, number three is accountability. So not maybe not going working out with a partner. Number two is time.

And the number one reason for New Year's resolution failures, crispy cream original flavor donuts. That's it. That's how mine has January 2nd every year.

That would be all three of mine. That would be one, two, and three. The red light is the culprit.

The red light. Um but we're gonna we're gonna talk some about today um about resolutions and we're actually a little bit later we're gonna get to four specific What we're calling mad solutions instead of resolutions. How bad is that?

I made up that word. Uh mad solutions zones for a make-a-difference new year. As always, we're talking about How I can be a better ambassador for Christ, represent him, and have my life matter and make a difference in other lives.

Ron:
Let me tell you what's so cool about that. Okay, remember 2019, everybody saying, Happy New Year! I do. Do you know what happened in February after that January? I don't. COVID

Doug:
Oh, that's right.

Ron:
Happy New Year. And it's been and so it was like, how'd that happy new year work out for you? So here's the deal.

I don't know if twenty twenty-two We don't know what's going to happen. How happy will the new year be? Not sure.

A lot of that's out of your control. But here's what's in your control. Happy mad year.

If you have a mad new year and say, listen, whether it's a happy new year or not, it is going to be a make-a-difference new year for me. There you go. You got control over that.

Doug:
That is that is so good.

Ron:
Well then woo-hoo.

Doug:
Woohoo. Yeah, I I have these uh strange things in front of me here, Dad. Apparently you brought a few things into the I didn't see 'em. Now let me see if I can explain for our listeners what we're looking at here.

Ron:
Good luck.

Doug:
Dad would always what are these called? These aren't anagrams. What are these called?

Ron:
Um uh oh, um, oh uh what are you c Jesse, what do you call those when you do the letters and you come up with words for parallelogram? Not parallelogram. That's because I thought.

Doug:
No, whatever these are. Acrostic. Acrostic.

There you go. Acrostic. So Dad would write out Happy New Year.

And so it all the way down the left side of the paper, H A P P Y N E W Y E A R and he would agree. Yeah, well, we we think so. Let's read these and see if if that's true.

Ron:
Uh man, this is terrible.

Doug:
So what dad would he would ask us to do a resolution and start that Resolution with that letter. So H here's one right here. So it would always start out so good.

H would Have nice days. This is Brad's actually. This is Brad from 1982.

Have a nice day. Hey, listen to this. Angry is bad So we w you'd go down these l and you'll okay that's pretty good, but eventually we'd run out of gas here.

Where kids you couldn't have just put like new or year. It's gotta be like eighty letters here. And so this is really funny.

So Start great. Have a nice day. Angry is bad.

Let's go down the list a little bit more. Um why he just writes yes. E. E. He just writes egg.

However, Euro. Egg. You roll.

What's your what's your New Year's resolution, Brad?

Ron:
I'm gonna have an egg sometime this year. No yolk. Uh and uh you have you have the yell less at Brad.

See for for why. Um and but wait a minute. That that was uh d can I tell the years on these?

Please. This is 1981, and in 1982 you wrote yell less often. So you're still apparently in well how what percentage was that that failed in the resolution?

Doug:
Oh wait, wait. I oh I got a good one.

Ron:
Yeah.

Doug:
Now this was he cheated a little bit, Brad, on this one. And for some reason he calls his allowance pay. I'm not sure.

But so it says about a raise in my pay Huh. But it starts with an eight. How about a raising my pay?

I don't know if if that worked out on the allowance. You'd have to tell us that.

Ron:
Well listen, we got d even I got desperate and it was my idea So we get to happy, I get down to, oh I've got nice ones, pray together more, uh arranged, regular times with mom. But why is yump onto a bike for more family rides? No, I'm not desperate. Oh my goodness.

Doug:
Alright, here's all right. There's an H here and Brad put have no more

Ron:
Piano lessons.

Doug:
So so yeah, we kind of failed on uh a lot of these, as so many of us do. Uh we got a number one reason though, how's this for a segue that Our resolutions as followers of Christ can fail. I have made some serious resolutions in the past And sometimes they're just between me and God.

Ron:
Mm-hmm.

Doug:
And sometimes it's um it can be kind of embarrassing even to bring it before God and even admit it. And uh I think that we have got been thinking about this, Dad, and I think I've got a number one reason why mine failed, especially relationship ones, especially ones where I'm trying to Um grow closer in my walk with Jesus so that I can make a difference in other people's lives. Um and I think it's because believers get these power outages may uh a believer brownout, as it will, where we get cut off from so scripture says, this has always blown me away, that the same power that conquered the grave, when we Have asked Jesus for forgiveness, and we follow him now, and we are rescued, we are saved.

The same power that conquered the grave, that raised Jesus from the dead, lives in us I go, that the power that created the universe, the power that raised the dead lives in me. Why can't I get past this? relationship thing.

Why why is there still awkwardness? Why it why it uh am am I still uh struggling in a relationship with my child or a friend or or my wife And man, it's I start to jump into scripture, and I really think that we get held back from accomplishing these life resolutions in relationships by holding on to things that that keep us From experiencing God's power. This is always the I remember when I read this first scripture, Dad.

I really want to hear what you have to say about this one because Uh, you know, i it's strange when you're when you're reading the Bible and and uh we it says something about worshiping God or praising God, we go, of course, but there are sometimes scriptures where God says, actually, I don't want that from you. Yeah. I want you to actually to stop.

Yeah, you say shut it down sometimes. Shut it down. And that is so strange to me.

Those scriptures really get my attention. This one especially, I read this um maybe a year after I got serious about my walk, my relationship with Jesus. So I would have been about 17 or 18.

And Jesus said this in the book of Matthew in chapter 5. He says, if you're offering your gift at the altar, in other words, here's my here's my worship gift, here's what I'm bringing to God. I'm offering this to him, and there you remember that your brother or sister has something against you.

Leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them, then Come and offer your gift.

Ron:
You know, sometimes I think we you you would talk about why why these resolutions fail. I think one reason they fail is because we we don't they're not specific. They're general.

They're like, I want to be a better guy. I want to treat my wife better. How what do you how?

Have you got a specific action step when you don't have the specific? Now with this, you know, w I think at the beginning you were talking about maybe some of these these areas that we could focus on for resolutions. Yeah.

And one of those is something broken in my life, a relationship that's broken. I would just suggest that we all think about because it's affecting you, it's affecting them. It's a drag on on you.

And the Bible is saying here, if you've got a broken relationship, don't leave it broken. Now, how do you well and I've broken a relationship might be because of what you did to them. Or it might be because of what they did to you.

None matter. But there are some, I was thinking, what are some healing Like sentences. One of them was that one Fonzi could never say.

You remember the three words I? What what is it?

Doug:
He says, I was and then he couldn't get through the last one. I was you're asking me about Fonzy, you're my wheelhouse. I know that. I I mean I mean, come on. Um, Fonzi Urkel, you name it.

Ron:
I was rr finally wrong. I was wrong. And they are hard words, but the Bible says if you confess your faults to one another You will be healed.

There's healing in those three words. There's healing in these three words. I forgive you.

There's healing in these words. I miss you. I'm tired of our relationship being a broken and distant.

There was a time we were close. I miss you. Um or please forgive me.

Let's turn that around the other way. This is this is a specific action step. I think we could beat the percentages on the resolution if we had a name with it.

And we said, as something there's someone I got broken with And I'm that is one of the things that I want by this time next year, I want there to be some healing in that relationship, at least to the point where it's up to me.

Doug:
Dad, isn't it striking that there is this I mean uh this massive power supply It's like Jesus generator, uh uh uh full of power. Resurrection power. Resurrection power that God Wants to pour into our relationships so we can make a difference in our family, so we can make a difference with our friends, with our coworkers.

And it's just right there for the taking. But for some reason we love this grudge a little bit more. This scripture has always struck me, 2 Chronicles 16, 9, God's radar I call it God's radar, but it says it actually says God's eyes roam to and fro about the earth, seeking whom he may strengthen, whose hearts are fully committed.

to him. So I this awesome picture of God's radar looking all over the earth and trying, scanning, this scanner waiting to lock on to somebody who is serious about following him And then the the power, the plutonium of obeying God kicks in. And now I've got this power accessible.

To me, if I'm gonna be a madman, a make a difference man or make a difference woman, I've gotta get my life, my relationship headquarters, my heart. in a place where I can help others heal. You know that that saying physician heal thyself?

I've got to get better before I can help them get better. I've got to ask God for healing. in my relationship with him.

I've got to, and and that's part of that is repentance. There's this another striking scripture, Psalm 66, 18. King David said, If if I cherished sin on my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

Now, we're not he's this is a praying man, David. Now we're not talking about salvation here. We're not talking about that there are certain There are works, there are deeds you can do to be saved or not saved.

That's all belief. That's all faith. But there are things we do or do not do.

Where we have access to God's power to heal even the most broken relationships.

Ron:
You remember the little engine that could Remember the four words?

Doug:
I remember you reading it to us.

Ron:
I what's it say?

Doug:
I think I can.

Ron:
I think I can. I think I can. You know what?

It might be that if there's a change you're looking for in your life, and I hope there is, for this to be a make-a-difference year, you'll see the power of the words, I think I can't. I'm not going to say the little engine lied to us, but there's a side to this. I'm thinking about one of the greatest Christians who ever lived, the great representative of Christ, Paul. And he says, he writes these words.

He says, the things I want to do, I don't do, the good things. The bad things I don't want to do, I do. He apparently had a problem with his revolution resolution, yeah, resolutions.

And he goes on with the frustration that we all know, uh every parent. Every husband, every wife goes, I don't want to be this kind of guy. I don't want to be this kind of woman, but I keep being it.

Well, here's what he says, here's his conclusion. He said, Who will rescue us? I was rescued when I was drowning when I was 10 years old from Lake Michigan.

And I'll tell you, I was helpless to help myself. I know what the word rescue means. I had to have somebody else get me out of that.

And somebody did, obviously. Hey, listen, he said, who will rescue us? Thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

And there is a point where you say Lord, the reason I haven't been able to change this is because I can't change it. I need you. I'm going to get out of the way.

I I open up myself to you. to send your power. I need to depend on you.

I'm desperate and I'm desperate for you. And Paul said the change took place when he stopped trying to change himself and he let Jesus do the changing.

Doug:
Right after I graduated uh from Wheaton College, I made a decision to go down to a Native American reservation and start a youth ministry among native young people. that did not have anything like that. And I had lots of uh a guy who who uh grew up in the suburbs of new of New York, in New Jersey.

Things are a little different uh culturally there I found and I um I actually learned how to uh do something that I'm actually was hoping that they would turn into an Olympic event. I wish they would make Olympic showering. Because I figured out how to perfect the 30-second shower.

Don't let yourself have any hot water

Ron:
Oh, that would do it.

Doug:
I lived in this travel trailer, okay? Uh-huh. And I would find after about 10 seconds of having hot water, it would just get completely cold.

Freezing. Huh. And man, you you would be surprised how quickly you can shower when that happens.

Ron:
There's a mystery here somewhere.

Doug:
There is a mystery. And so I asked a friend, I said, can you come and and see If you can fix this for me. Well he looked around and he said, Well, here's the problem.

There's this hose that is supposed to bring the hot water to the trailer and into the shower. And he said, I looked in there and there is soot in there. There's soot in the line.

Ron:
Oh, mystery shawl.

Doug:
This dirt and it's keeping That dirt, that junk is keeping the hot water from getting into the shower. I said that to you. I remember telling you that story and I'll never forget.

You said you said, you know, that kind of reminds me about our relationship with God, of how we can be rescued, we can be saved, we can be going to church But we go something is missing here. I'm I am not feeling the power to make a difference. in the lives of other people.

I'm not feeling like I could even help my own children, my wife. I don't feel any power myself. And that's because of this soot in the line.

This thing between us and God, kind of this one unconfessed sin or the one the one sin that that keeps coming back and we k and keeps tripping us up, and we lose the access, we lose this this supernatural power that is accessible to us.

Ron:
Then that gives us a second target for our go mad. And what was the first one? What'd you call it?

Resolutions? Mad solutions. Well the first one was something broken.

And I'm not going to leave it broken, that relationship. This would be then something wrong. There's there's there's a sin.

There's something I'm hanging on to. that is holding me back. It is blocking a best relationship with God.

It is blocking a best relationship with other people. I tell you a place in the Bible that talks, sort of talks about this in 1 John 1. It says, God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.

Okay, now get that. Then he says. If we walk in the light, as God is in the light, well, how was that?

No darkness at all. If we walk in the light, as God is in the light, We have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, purifies us from all sin. Here's what I hear in that verse.

We've all got darkness There's some darkness, whether it's our selfishness or our pride or our lust or our anger or what you know the our dishonesty, our lying, whatever it is, there we got darkness. That's in the closet. And if we'll drag that out into the light, Jesus is out in the light.

And if we go out there Now we've brought it out into the light. He is the light, he said. And now that thing that has conquered us can be conquered.

I remember you saying that sin is like a vampire. It's it thrives in the dark. I thought that was so cool.

Doug:
You drag it out into the light kicking and screaming and it dies.

Ron:
So uh the thing that we've tried to keep in the dark and let the darkness stay in our life, get it out in the light, two things will happen. We have fellowship with one another. Well that's the horizontal.

That our s th the way that's been negatively affecting our relationships. That's going to be taken care of. We're going to have better relationships with each other.

It also says the blood of Jesus, his son, will purify you of all that sin, not just forgive you. Purify, clean it up, hello. So now we have got things going with God, going with other people.

Why? Because we dragged the dark into the light.

Doug:
That's so good. You know, I really love those two points, Dad. I mean, if you're listening to this, and maybe even if you're not the kind of person that writes some things down, Maybe try a little different resolution the list this year.

I love that. Uh bring bring these things to God. Something broken, a relationship.

Maybe that maybe that resolution has a name It needs to. It needs to.

Ron:
It ain't go fly if it's just an I'm gonna try to, you know, have better relationships. With who?

Doug:
With who? A mission with the name. The second one.

Something wrong, so something broken. The second one, something wrong. Maybe uh so a sin that's holding me back and and give it a name And drag it out kicking and screaming into the light.

Part of that is accountability, is is confessing. The Bible says, confess your sin to one another, and you will be healed. Um, I got another one here, Dad.

Something broken something wrong. How about asking God to bring power into this situation of someone hurting. Uh-huh.

We're we're so focused. You read social media social media and and it's so much me, me, me, me. And Jesus, the one thing that will strike you when you're reading the New Testament, he would always go into a room.

He would always go into, he'd go into the marketplace, wherever he was. Everyone else is clamoring for him, especially when they were treating him like a celebrity and he was healing people and everything. Jesus was always attracted to the person who was hurting, who needs me, and there's I will guarantee you, you're listening to this, there's somebody you know in your life.

Ron:
They have uh lost someone they love recently and they're they're grieving over it. Um there might be somebody who's new in town and they're lonely. Uh is somebody that every time you see them they're alone someone who has uh been been put down, someone who is considered an outsider or different in some way.

They're not our kind of person uh might be someone of another religion, another race, but you need someone who needs you. You need someone who needs you. And that that's why I say, and and we talked about this in your first podcast, uh, to ask the question when you wake up in the morning, Lord, show me who needs me today.

Who needs me today? Someone needs an encouraging text or post or smile or compliment or uh note or thank you which nobody ever tells them uh and uh sometimes they don't even know what to do with it. What I love is when Jesus told a story, when a guy came up to him trying to trip him up with the answer was, who is my neighbor?

And is it the guy next door to me? And who is my neighbor? And Jesus says, um No, and he told a story about a wounded man by the side of the road.

Remember he'd been mugged and was left to die and they took his clothes and everything. And two people on their way to a Committee meeting a church, benevolence committee meeting whatever. But priest, you know, these guys the religious guys.

They pass 'em by going, I'm really busy. I have to go to church and talk about how we help the needy. Uh and um and then this one guy, Samaritan, Jesus makes the hero the race that everybody, the Jews and Nunaby, they didn't like they want to be around Samaritans.

And he makes a Samaritan the hero of the story. And the Samaritan stops, takes care of the guy, puts him up at a at a hotel, uh, pays for a night, says I'm gonna come back this way, I'll pay for his whole bill when I come back, whatever however long he needs to be here. And the neat thing about that is Jesus is obviously demonstrating that the person who loves their neighbor as themselves Notice how Jesus makes that practical.

He makes it specific. Here we go. Is the guy who stop or the woman who stops for the needy person when everybody else is too busy.

And that's been me. I've been I'm a busy guy. And I I have to I have to be rewired by Jesus.

to stop and go, this needy person right now who needs a call, who needs an encouragement, who needs help of some kind, more important than these Twenty-two things on my list to do today. Stop for the needy person. So if you want to have a make-a-difference year.

Then get a name, get a mission with a name. Someone in your circle that you think of when you think of the outsider, the lonely, the hurting, the grieving, the wounded, the rejected, whoever. You become the voice, the face, and the hands and the heart of Jesus to them.

Doug:
We always come back to this first, but it's so powerful to think that God's word says that uh we are Christ's ambassadors as if he is making his appeal through us. In other words, it's mind-blowing. There is no, I remember you telling me once The Great Commission is Plan A, and there is no plan B.

Ron:
There is no other plan.

Doug:
God's people are the plan to reach those that need Jesus. So many people heading for a Christless Eternity right now. I have a feeling we're coming up to our fourth specific resolution target for a make a difference.

New Year. We've talked about I I love that each of these has a name, putting a name um something broken, a relationship that you're bringing to God, getting right Being reconciled, getting power, bringing God's power into that situation. Something wrong, a sin maybe that's holding me back, someone hurting, asking, who needs me?

And finally, someone who's lost. You just said a mission with a name, Dad, um, the greatest way we can possibly make a difference in somebody's life. is to bring them the joy and forgiveness and the this beautiful new creationness that they can be when they have Jesus and then the promise of forever with them.

Ron:
It's interesting. That word lost is the word Jesus used. I we didn't think that up.

He said he came to look for and rescue those who are lost. It's a good word because I don't know where I'm headed. I don't, you know, I'm confused.

I I'm I feel like there's I I don't I know where I want to be, but I can't get there, you know. All of that is lost. The you know when the Titanic uh sank, you had first class, second class, third class crew.

Everybody was one of those categories. Those categories didn't matter at Italy uh once the Titanic's going down 'Cause after all was said and done, at their headquarters of the White Star lines, they had two two lists. Saved, lost.

Doug:
Oh, that's right. I remember that.

Ron:
And first John chapter five says God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his son. Whoever has the son, Jesus, has life. Whoever does not have the son of God does not have life.

Everybody you know is on one of two lists. They are saved because they've accepted the rescue Jesus made possible by his death on the cross. or they're currently lost.

Now on the Titanic lists, those no one could ever change lists, but that someone you know, who I think you want to have in heaven with you. That might depend humanly speaking on whether you tell them about your Jesus or not and your whole story. So to make su that and not just to say, well, Lord help me, I pray you'd help the people without you, whoever they are.

No, no, not whoever they are. Not a big category of people. Name somebody in your world that as far as you know has never begun a relationship with a man who died for their sin.

And by the way, um while we're talking about that, which list are you on? Because everybody who's listening to this podcast is on one of those two lists. And and it isn't about whether you're religious or not, or whether you're a really good person or you're not a good person.

It's whether or not you've ever begun a relationship with Jesus By doing what I did the day that that rescuer came for me and grabbing him like he's your only hope. And the Bible says when you do that, and here's the New Year verse, 2 Corinthians 5. 17 says, if anyone is in Christ, now you may be outside of Christ right now, but you pray to begin a relationship with him when you once you're in Christ.

He is a new creation. Is it getting better than that? There's happy new life, happy new eternity, forever.

He is he is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone, a new life has begun. Happy, happy, happy new year right there.

A new life has begun. And um, you know, when Jesus came, he drew a line in time. Everything every year new year has been either BC or AD ever since.

Before Christ Anno Domini. I'm glad I took Latin. Anno Domini is not a girl, an Italian girl.

Anno Domini is after Christ after uh after Christ came, after our Lord came. What do they call this next year? The year of our Lord, 2022.

I think my prayer for you, my friend, would be. . .

The next year would be your first year of your Lord, where he really is yours. And uh it will change everything. You know, Doug, your life, my life, everybody in our family's life is divided into B C and A D. That's right.

It really stunk before Christ and it really took off after Christ. And for you might this might be the One first year with Christ in your heart coming up. Maybe that's why we were supposed to be together here.

Doug:
Hey, write these down, uh put 'em on the fridge, put 'em in your phone, somewhere where you will see these and be reminded. I'm staring at you, Jesse.

Ron:
I want to know what's a New Year's resolution you're thinking about.

Jesse:
focused which takes a lot of the pressure off of me to fix myself. I think a lot of times with resolutions uh the m the main idea is I see something wrong in my life and I'm going to change that Which is the opposite of the gospel. The gospel is I I can change it.

I need Jesus to do the work I can do. With these four resolutions, they all bring to mind things that are focused on other people and that um need God to work where I can't. If someone's lost, uh I need God to bring them to Jesus. If someone's hurting, God's the comforter Lord, let me play a part in that.

Let me do what you want me to do to be the bridge for that person. I I I think this gives me a lot to think over this year.

Doug:
I love that. Hey, thanks for listening. Would you uh leave a review, leave a rating? It really helps us and maybe share with your friend and hopefully you'll help them become a make-a-difference person to so hope you have a great new year so from dad and dog we wish you a happy new year