{"id":1672,"date":"2018-02-15T19:45:31","date_gmt":"2018-02-16T02:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/felixculpa\/?p=1672"},"modified":"2018-02-16T22:18:32","modified_gmt":"2018-02-17T05:18:32","slug":"failed-new-years-resolutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/felixculpa\/2018\/02\/failed-new-years-resolutions.html","title":{"rendered":"On Failed New Year’s Resolutions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As I write this, Valentine\u2019s Day has dawned. It\u2019s dark outside. In Broward County, it\u2019s even darker. Darker than it ever has been, perhaps. But I find myself not wanting to talk about <\/span>one more<\/span><\/i> school shooting. Nothing\u2019s going to change until <\/span>we<\/i><\/b> change, and I weary of throwing pearls before swine, as the Bible would say, by telling others that Jesus is the ultimate answer to crime and how we react to crime, only to have my words barely make a drop in a vast sea of distress. <\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say I shouldn\u2019t keep megaphoning God\u2019s truths \u2013 and I won\u2019t. It\u2019s just to say that on this 14th day of February, a day that was supposed to be filled with love and was instead darkened with hate, I choose to be still and know that God is God and hope others will follow suit. Perhaps then we could hear God well enough to know what the next right thing to do is \u2026 and do it. <\/span><\/p>\n

What I\u2019ll talk about instead is our New Year\u2019s Resolutions and how they\u2019re going. And by that, I mean how we are most likely failing. <\/span><\/p>\n

If you remember, I made a goal of <\/span>reading one hundred books this year<\/span><\/a>. That\u2019s two books per week, save for the weeks of Thanksgiving and Christmas, because no housewife sits down and reads books during those weeks. Welp. We\u2019re on week six, and I\u2019m on my 11th book, so I guess I\u2019m doing fairly well, especially considering I have two other books I\u2019m working on, bit by bit, that will add up sometime throughout the year to be, well, duh \u2026 two more books. I\u2019m more of a wordsmith than a mathematician \u2026 <\/span><\/p>\n

Never mind. I had to google how to spell m-a-t-h-e-m-a-t-i-c-i-a-n. <\/span><\/p>\n

I hang my head in shame. <\/span><\/p>\n

Anyway, the reading challenge has made me feel as though I\u2019m running a brainy marathon. It seems I rarely have a spare moment to just zone out because if I\u2019m not talking or cooking or cleaning or entertaining or watching <\/span>The Crown,<\/span><\/i> I\u2019m envisioning all the words that I could be reading being flushed right down the commode. <\/span><\/p>\n

Read, you fool! <\/span><\/i>I tell myself. And usually, I don\u2019t have to tell me twice because so far, the books I\u2019ve chosen to read have panned out as either delightful, easy, fun, spiritually enlightening, convicting, or page turning \u2014 with the exception of one, in which the liberal author thought it a swell idea to (unbeknownst to me when I bought the book) sneak in what I like to call Obama politics. So, while I count the book as having been read, because I did read well over 250 pages of it, I didn\u2019t finish. That\u2019s just me following the advice I was given once that said if you loathe a book, put it down. Don\u2019t waste your time. <\/span><\/p>\n

But I spent $6.98 on this literary work! <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

That\u2019s what my heart cried. But my reading sessions became farther and farther apart, because while the dog in the story was very endearing, the social aspects of it were stressful. The characters were not even a little endearing, save for (maybe) the dog\u2019s owner. Everyone else seemed mean and\/or dysfunctional, or just snooty. A few were portrayed as evil, because (gasp!) they owned a gun, and of course all gun owners are up-to-n0-good-slime-balls. <\/span><\/p>\n

Well. I do hope Bailey got back to her owner. I assume she did, since the plot was almost exactly that of the movie <\/span>Homeward Bound, <\/span><\/i>which<\/span>\u00a0my children watched every day for twelve years in a row. If you\u2019ve read <\/span>A Dog\u2019s Way Home<\/span><\/i><\/a>, do let me know how it turned out for Bailey. I loved her. Just not enough to stay tuned and figure out whether she made it home safely, I guess. Maybe I\u2019m a slime-ball after all.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So save for the dog book, I\u2019m pleased with my choices, which can be attributed to good recommendations from friends and adequate research. My purchase of <\/span>A Dog\u2019s Way Home<\/span><\/i> was a snap decision because I\u2019m a sucker for sappy dog stories and I\u2019m also cheap because I married a Scot, and Scots are \u2026 uhm, we\u2019ll say frugal, because it\u2019s more respectful. It\u2019s just that my Scot\u2019s frugality has developed into my cheapness, that\u2019s all. So when I saw a dog book for cheap, I snagged it. <\/span><\/p>\n

Bad, bad, bad. <\/span><\/p>\n

Do your research, always. <\/span><\/p>\n

My other resolution, which is a bit wrapped up in reading one hundred books is to read the Bible all the way through in chronological order. On that, I\u2019m behind. A failure, really, which likely tells you where my heart is: more inclined toward fancy, fictional stories and theories of men rather than God\u2019s stories and theology. I\u2019m sorry. I get stuck every year in Exodus or Leviticus, and I get discouraged, and then I start hopping around in my reading in an effort to keep me awake and engaged, and then I get lost and even more discouraged and it\u2019s a downward spiral from there. It\u2019s at that point that I curse whoever put together the daily reading list. Granted, I still read my Bible, but it always ends up being in an order I can tolerate, rather than in some order someone has inflicted on my mind to torture me in strange and subtle ways. <\/span><\/p>\n

What do we do when we fail at reaching our goals? I don\u2019t know that there\u2019s a pat answer. Maybe for you, picking yourself up by your bootstraps and disciplining yourself to go on is the answer. Churchill always said \u201cIf you\u2019re going through hell, keep going\u201d, and it seems to me that a good number of our resolutions are self-inflicted hell.<\/span><\/p>\n

No more chocolate for me this year! <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

To the gym, every morning by 5:30! <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to lose 120 pounds! And sixteen inches of belly fat! <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

You have to ask yourself, I think, <\/span>Is this goal reasonable? Attainable? <\/span><\/i>And if you find out it\u2019s not, adjust. One hundred books isn\u2019t all that reasonable for me. I know when Spring arrives, I\u2019m going to have less time than I\u2019ve had the past few months. Yard work and other outside projects will take precedence. So my goal is one hundred. My resolution is not. I don\u2019t really make resolutions because frankly, I think they\u2019re prideful.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Many are the plans in a person\u2019s heart, but it is the Lord\u2019s purpose that prevails.<\/span><\/i> ~Prov. 16:9 <\/span><\/p>\n

In my view, a resolution is more concrete. It says <\/span>I will do this, no matter what<\/span><\/i>. A goal, though, is simply something to aim for, but leaves room for the redirection of steps. For God to say, <\/span>You know, this is My plans for you today. Adjust. <\/span><\/i>The only thing I should be resolved to do as a Christian is to \u201cno longer linger\u201d, as the old hymn says. To no longer be charmed by the world\u2019s delight, but to strive for things that are higher, things that are nobler. <\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, what that means is that I need to make sure I read my Bible. But if I choose to skip around the sixty-six books within the Book? All hell will not break loose. And if I slow down enough to catch the meaning, rather than fly through it just so I can say I\u2019ve read it in a year, but as a result get nothing out of it? Then I\u2019ve made the right choice. I\u2019ll get it read. Whether it\u2019s in chronological order or read in fifty-two weeks, who cares? If I wrote my Scot a love letter, would I want him to slow down and read through as though it\u2019s written by someone who loves him? Or would I want him to read it in five seconds flat, just so he could say he read it? <\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever your resolution or goal is, be determined \u2013 but flexible. You\u2019re going to get more out of it if you\u2019re not so single focused. Enjoy life! Obey God. And if you\u2019re running down or over those you love in the process of attaining your goals, or flat out ignoring your people, don\u2019t keep going. You\u2019re creating your own hell as well as other people\u2019s hell, and that\u2019s not what Churchill meant when he admonished us to keep going through tough times. The big idea is not to keep going like a steam roller, not caring who or what you flatten. It\u2019s to keep going in whatever God has ordained for you. <\/span><\/p>\n

Have your plans. But be willing to forfeit them for your King. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 As I write this, Valentine\u2019s Day has dawned. It\u2019s dark outside. In Broward County, it\u2019s even darker. Darker than it ever has been, perhaps. But I find myself not wanting to talk about one more school shooting. Nothing\u2019s going to change until we change, and I weary of throwing pearls before swine, as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2920,"featured_media":435,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[352,349,355,22,358],"class_list":["post-1672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-goals","tag-new-years-resolutions","tag-planning","tag-reading","tag-school-shootings"],"yoast_head":"\nOn Failed New Year's Resolutions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"  As I write this, Valentine\u2019s Day has dawned. It\u2019s dark outside. 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