Let’s Resolve
Have you ever considered your own personal mission statement? This is not just the task of Trinity Christian School alumni developing their resume strategy for post-graduate employment. No. Understanding who we are and why we are here, which is the purpose of a mission statement, will help reduce a life of trivial pursuits and guide us in a life more consistent with who we should be.
At the age of 18, Jonathan Edwards developed his notable 70 resolutions, which were his attempt to distill biblical principles for living a full and God-honoring life. These were writings to himself that were regularly reviewed and prayed over. A look of his resolutions demonstrates that from an early age he knew God and his God-given purpose for being here.
Edwards’ first and capstone resolution stated that he, “resolved that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God’s glory and to my own good profit and pleasure.” He didn’t see God’s glory and his profit and pleasure as contrary to one another, but as complementary. Edwards therefore made it his consuming passion to evaluate all of his decisions through the lens of that first resolution. He knew that not all decisions glorified God optimally so his decisions were carefully weighed as to which would bring God the greatest glory and others around him the greatest good.
Jonathan Edwards’ preeminent focus on God’s glory also directed him to detail a clear defense of biblical Christianity against the secular worldviews of Europe’s Enlightenment thinkers. One doesn’t have to be a Christian today to recount the major impact that Edwards had on early American history. To our day, the prolific writings of this Puritan pastor and instrument in the Great Awakening are studied and held in high esteem. Edwards became established as America’s foremost theologian and philosopher.
As we review the goals in our own life, we would do well to adopt Jonathan Edwards’ first resolution as our resolution and as a part of our own mission statement. Let us be equally resolved with the passion to live, one decision at a time, so as to bring God the most glory while doing others maximum good.
