New Year's Resolution

While hanging out with some friends on New Years Eve, the topic of resolutions came up and I realized I did not make one for this year. I’ve never been a big fan of New Year’s resolutions anyway. Most of us know that we won’t end up keeping them and I don’t see the point in setting myself up for inevitable failure. Most of them are very self-centered and involve improving our appearance, making our lives easier and more comfortable, or making ourselves more successful. Resolutions I have made in the past were shallow and always revolved around self-help of some sort. There’s nothing inherently wrong with trying to improve ourselves or our situations, but I don’t think it should become our main goal in life.

After mulling over some ideas on New Year’s Day, I decided my resolution would be to call or email a few select people at least once per week. People who are important to me, but I tend to let a good amount of time pass between conversations. Mainly because I just get busy and distracted and I know they will always be there to talk to when things slow down. While pondering this, I realized there are some similarities between my relationships with these people and my relationship with God. They have all known me all or most of my life, they love me (even though they know a lot about me), they would make great sacrifices for me, and I do believe a smile appears on their face when they get that phone call or email (or prayer) from me. Even if it has been a great while since we last talked, we can pick up right where we left off like no time has passed at all. This is not to say that talking once every month or two is ideal… if we talked on a more regular basis, our relationship would grow even deeper and we would know each other that much more. Well, God already knows everything about us. He is always there, waiting for us to initiate the conversation that leads to getting to know Him better. James 4:8 tells us to Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Just looking at Jesus’s life tells us the importance of prayer and time spent with God. His life on earth was perfect and sinless, and he still spent a great amount of time with His Father, off alone in prayer. If sinless Jesus needed that prayer time, how much more of that time does someone like me need?

After considering this, here is my refined resolution- to communicate more regularly with my God and to end each day with my knowledge and love of Him having grown deeper than the day before. Will I mess up? Probably. Almost certainly. But it is comforting to know that His grace and forgiveness is there waiting for me instead of some Jillian-type drill instructor. :)