Sbsolution for failed New Year's Resolutions

I know lots of people make New Year's Resolutions. However, I don't! It's
not that I think they are a not good thing for people to do, I understand
that it is really helpful to some people. Yet to other people it is a source
of pressure and sometimes depression when they fail to keep them.

I saw a Newspaper cartoon this week that showed someone setting up a booth
to give absolution for failed New Year's Resolutions of the past year.
Cartoons many times are a commentary on our society, so what does that say
about us? It says that most of us have high ideals and set great goals, but
we are not the best at carrying them out.

I believe that part of the problem of making and keeping goals may be
personal motivation. After all, what makes this goal or resolution important
to you? Why would you want to keep or accomplish whatever you decided on as
a resolution? What is the most important thing in your life and why would
you want to add to or improve that thing?

For me, setting goals (or making resolutions) is a continual thing. The
level of importance of some things changes as our life changes, which is why
I never stop setting new goals. When you stop setting goals you begin "just
sitting!" That's why some folks stop being involved with church or other
people. They have come to a point in their lives where they are no longer
challenged by new goals; they are just sitting, waiting for life to be over.

Let me share what I think is the most important resolution you can make (if
you make one). It is to know Christ and his power in your life. The apostle
Paul put it this way in 1 Corinthians 2:2 "For I resolved to know nothing
while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified."

Life has a way of getting so mangled up by the world that sometimes it's
just difficult for us to focus, to remember our goals or our resolutions. If
we will set a goal of Christ being the most important person in our lives;
the focus of our lives changes. Christ begins to over shadow everything else
in our lives and our relationships.

There is an old hymn from the 1800's that has these words: "I am resolved no
longer to linger, charmed by the world's delight. Things that are higher,
things that are nobler, these have allured my sight. I will hasten to him,
hasten so glad and free, Jesus, Greatest, Highest, I will come to thee."
(Palmer Hartsough, 1896).

What are you resolved to do this coming year and beyond?

Russ Lawson