No Resolutions. One Goal.

I hate resolutions.  The guys I work with hate them too.  You’ll see this disdain in our videos (Whatever, Starting Now, and Resolutions).  And if you spent time with the three of us, you’d feel it too.

There are two reasons for this disdain.  First, nobody keeps resolutions.  Second (and more important), nobody CAN keep resolutions.  Resolutions are a test of our ability to exert enough self-effort to control a habit, a situation, or a person.  And this pursuit inevitably champions the “pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps” theology that runs rampant in North American Christianity, and is entirely contrary to real Life in the Kingdom of God.

Now you know about me, and resolutions.

But…

There is one goal I have for the coming year.  It’s not fleshed out or anything yet, but it’s there, and is slowly growing in strength and potential (that’s a really complex way of saying I think about this when I mow the lawn, or stand in the shower).

Simply put:  During the next season of my life I want to spend more hours reading than watching television and movies.

I suppose I’ve slowly become someone who uses television as a way of decompressing from the stresses of my life.  I do NOT believe this to be a bad or evil thing.  Yet.  We all need patterns of allowing our minds to stop racing – things that give our minds a break.  For some, television does the trick.  My problem is that I don’t need to decompress AS MUCH as I think I do.  So I’d like to read more, not as another substitute way of decompressing, but as a pathway to further spiritual and professional growth.

I think I’ll stay away from any “How To” books, because I’ve tried the formulas and, for me, they don’t work.  I think I’ll read some previously unread authors (Lencioni, Rohr, Steele), as well as some old favorites (Eldredge, Bell, Miller).   And I think I’ll work my way through some obscure Old Testament book (like Zephaniah, or Habakkuk, or some other book that I only pretend I know something about).

So, if you can picture Dana Carvey impersonating George Bush Sr. on SNL, just say this out loud:

“Resolutions.  Bad.”

“Goals.  Good.”

That’s where I’m at.  And I feel like it’s a God-thing in my life.

How about you?