Resolution Season

So, what do you think of New Year's resolutions?  I've heard a lot of talk about them the last week or so, everything from people who always make them and never meet them, never make them (so they always meet them), people who believe it's great to embrace a new start, and aim high, and people who believe it's silly to make a drastic declaration that you are almost certain not to achieve. 

Me?  I'm a fan.  Always have been. Why not?  Not crazy about your typical lose weight, quit smoking, save more, etc--though these are all admirable and, yeah, please do them if they're yours--but if there's something that will make your life and the lives of others better, why not have a goal and work to achieve it? 

My family's done something cool for the last few years.  Not really resolutions, more like "predictions" of things that will happen in each of our lives in the coming year.  Each New Year we write down a list of 3-5 of these each, put them in a box, and don't read them again until the following year.  It's interesting and often hilarious to look back and see what you guessed right, what you got completely wrong, and what mattered to you 365 days ago that, well, don't anymore. 

Some of my past predictions were things like "buy a house," "new car," "make X amount of money." 

Well, I rent, I'm not rich, and I just spent $1100 servicing my 97 pickup that I've driven since high school.  None of these things are really important to me anymore. Sure, probably one day I'll buy a house.  And, inevitably one day I will have to get a new vehicle. But the timeline really is no longer a concern.  I have a place to sleep, enough money to pay the bills, and a vehicle to get me where I need to go (and I love that truck). 

So, I made a list of predictions this year, and they were a little different.  I'll tell you what they are on Jan 1, 2012.

I also have a short list of personal, tangible resolutions, but they all really boil down to one: strenghening my relationship with God.  That's tough.  In the culture we live in, with the time constraints we have, does it ever seem really difficult to spend enough time in prayer or reading, loving and giving and serving others in the name of Christ?  And, even when we do spend a lot of time by our standards, is that sufficient for the Creator of the Universe?  I'll be the first to admit it's a tall order, and none of us ever "get there" this side of heaven, do we?  The point though, I think, is to hold two contrasting ideas in tension with one another--that (1) by nature we are a wreck of sinful nastiness, we continually fall short, we absolutely need and should always desire more of God and that (2) God loves us, He can and will forgive us of all our shortcomings, and we can have confidence that if we call on Him, He will answer. For me, when these two ideas are held in tension with one another and intersect at the Cross of Jesus, the good news of the Gospel hits me with a new freshness that takes my breath away.

So yes, my resolutions are difficult--really, impossible.  Here's the thing though.  If it is to happen, it will without question require God to work in, through, for, with, and in spite of me.

This sense of absolute dependency gives me a lot of peace, because I'll take His success rate over mine any day of the year.