We are settling into the new 2008, and this is the time of year when most people who have set resolutions for the new year are facing the difficulty of sustaining necessary changes. I am reminded of a poem by Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892), which we sing as a hymn in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, usually around New Year’s Day:
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light.
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.Ring out the old; ring in the new.
Ring, happy bells, across the snow.
The year is going; let him go.
Ring out the false; ring in the true.
The year is going; let him go.
Ring out the false; ring in the true.Ring out the darkness of the land;
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
Tennyson was writing, at least on one level, about a dear friend who had passed away. For me, though, this text stands as a reminder about putting off the natural man. Paul taught the Corinthians:
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)
The concept of the natural man refers to our carnal nature, and to make and keep good resolutions teaches us to control the natural man in ourselves. As a righteous king in the Book of Mormon taught:
For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father. (Mosiah 3:19)
Only through Jesus Christ can we be freed from the tendencies of the natural man. This beautiful hymn reminds me to let the natural man die within me, and to “ring in the Christ that is to be.” As you continue to pursue or recommit to your resolutions, remember that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is the enabling power to change both hearts and actions. He is the true way to “ring out the darkness of the land.”
MP3 of Ring Out, Wild Bells
