New Year's Resolutions

OK so if you aren't a vegetarian you are sick of turkey by now and probably shopped out so what next. Oh there, look, New Year! Great party but what about those resolutions. I was thinking about this this morning and wondering how to make better resolutions. There is plenty of advice out there, of course.

Although the Christian calendar officially starts on the first Sunday of Advent many of us still want to start the new January with a better lifestyle. This is the first key to resolutions - they should be about lifestyle - not isolated acts which bear no resemblance to who we are the rest of the time.

When we talk about Christian lifestyle, we are talking about a more integrated process that just writing a random list of things we might like to see. We are talking about thinking and praying about who we are and what we would like to change in the presence of God and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. There really is no divorcing the secular idea of New Year's Resolutions from the reality of our lives bound up in Christ - if you take faith seriously as part of who you are anything you are pledging to do should come from a starting point of offering to God.

If you already have a rule of life this might be simpler as you have a framework to hang things on. A rule of life is simply how you intend to do things every day. It can cover everything from when and how you pray to how you interact with other people to your moral stance. It might seem excessive to have a written down rule, but here is why a lot of people do - because life throws curve balls - and when you are dodging, or catching, them you might find it helpful to have a baseline written down which you can hold yourself accountable to. A rule of life can change any time but it should change in the context of prayer and offering not just because you are having a bad day.

So perhaps, for New Year, you could think about the big picture of your life. Most of us, when we survey the landscape, find some glaring things we want to fix. One of my things is to run more, make it a rhythm instead of a chore - which is is in danger of becoming. But to do this I have to make a hole which it fits in all the time - I let go of a previous rhythm and must work on a new one but I really should only do this in the context of everything that God has made me and given me and see everything I do as an offering - if it is in there as a resolution it should be because I have prayed about it and believe that that is where God wants me to be.

Perhaps you feel this is all a bit serious for resolutions - after all we always break them, don't we? But why should we - why can't we really do something which we will stick with and will fit with who we are created to be? Would it hurt to spend a few minutes and say - God, what do you want me to do this year?

Ask, be prepared for the answer and then remember - make it possible, or if you do not see how it is possible, give the miracle time to happen - impatience is our great enemy. Take small steps so that you achieve something every day. Say thank-you to God when you are feeling good about what you have done, ask for help and guidance when you are not.

We are born to be beautiful, we are wonderful in God's sight - so let 2009 be a year of blooming, however dismal things may seem, ask God to tend you as you grow.

I may not have internet for a few days so I will post when I return.