Resolved.... - Rector's Rambling for 1/8/17

It feels like the new year is really beginning today because last Sunday was New Years Day, and attendance was affected by travel and late night adventures bringing in the new calendar year.

I hope that now we are well into our resolutions of the new year, and are actually sticking to a few of them!  Each new year brings a new hope, and we usually use that change to steel up our resolve to do better at one thing or another.

“This will be the year that I _________” we tell ourselves, and we say so with the best of intentions.  But for most folks that intention is forgotten or disregarded pretty soon thereafter, sometimes within days.  It is hoped that of all the hopes wrapped up in these promises to self that some of them will stick, and positive permanent change will happen.

Sometimes, it is the failure of a resolution that is actually helpful.  Nearly 28 years ago I made a new years resolution to not drink for a month.  I failed, twice, in two weeks.  But it was that failure that forced me to face my problem with alcohol, that I was powerless over it, and that it was making my life unmanageable.  From this bottom point I was willing to get help, and began getting it from friends who had a set of steps to help me cooperate with God in staying away from alcohol and being freed from the obsession to drink.

Whether our resolution this year is for something that is just a bad habit, or something self-destructive of which we want to rid ourselves, Our Lord is there to help.  How often do we decide to take on a really hard thing, and forget that Our Lord is concerned for our physical/emotional/spiritual welfare and that he will provide the Grace necessary to accomplish it (or if we fail, to repent and begin again).

This year let’s start some habits!  Start good habits like regular Church attendance, regular prayer and reading of Scripture, and going to Him first (not last), in order to stay on track, or get back on when necessary.