I don't make new year's resolutions. Ever. I suck at keeping them anyway, like most of us. Undisciplined as I am, making a resolution is tantamount to making a promise I cannot keep. Why can't I keep simple promises, like to exercise or to pray or to read more or watch less tv, or eat less junk food or make less waste? These are simple things. But I realize that I have not changed my habits in recent years. I am the same I was last year in so many ways. My bad habits have not been replaced by good ones. I have not ben faithful to my good habits. I'm a mess. "The good I want to do I do not do and the evil I do not want to do, I do." Paul had me pegged. Or us pegged. I'm stuck in a way of life that is not consistent with the way of GOD revealed to us by Jesus. I can't do it. I can talk about it. Invite others into it. But I can't practice it with real heart and guts. If God is the potter and I am the clay, God's got some work to do.
It reminds me of how unfair the God of the Old Testament prophets can be. Why didn't God get that he created people who would break covenant with HIM? God may have been relatively clear about His expectations for holiness, i.e., the whole book of the law thing. But I guess God's love for us clouded His ability to understand why we would continue to disappoint. I'm not blaming God for sin and its consequences. That's on us. But why didn't GOD know that we would break promises? If God did know, then God also knew that Jesus was going to redeem us. Jesus was God's rescue plan from the beginning. The entire biblical worldview rests on the claim of the incarnation, then. GOD dwelling in flesh to redeem humanity and save us from sin.
I can live in response to the incarnation. God is dwelling with us, in us, for us.
So, in response I would like to suggest that this blog become a source of connection between us and GOD's incarnate Word. Resolved, that this blog be a sign of God's Word manifest in human flesh.
So I will include several new features in 2009. I weekly reflection. A weekly spiritual reading from ancient texts. A weekly mission guide.
See you in 2009.
