Resolutions

I know. New Year's Day is already past. But, look, I haven't done my resolutions yet. Maybe I ought to get to that.

I intended to do one about not procrastinating anymore, but clearly I already put that off long enough to make it pointless. Maybe next year.

There have been reports lately about making resolutions. A key, they say, is making resolutions you can keep. Don't make resolutions you know you can't keep. And I thought perhaps I could do some biblical resolutions. Biblical resolutions I could keep. Good plan. Or so you'd think. I mean, sure, "You are to be perfect" is a good, biblical resolution, but clearly not one I can keep ... in this life. So I need to be reasonable.

There is, for instance, this: "bodily discipline is only of little profit" (1 Tim 4:8). In this case, I'd prefer the King James version. "Bodily exercise profiteth little." Good. Okay. So I resolve not to spend too much money, time, or effort in bodily exercise. That's one I can keep!

One often-missed one from Proverbs -- you know, the book on wisdom -- is found in the last chapter. "Give strong drink to him who is perishing, and wine to him whose life is bitter. Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his trouble no more (Prov 31:6-7). Now, look who won the election this last year and tell me about "trouble". Okay, I'm not a drinker, but maybe, in view of this biblical wisdom, I should make a resolution to learn?

Yeah, well, maybe I should make another resolution. Don't bother with New Year's resolutions. I don't think I'm any good at making them, let alone keeping them.