Why Resolve?

Well, the only New Year's Resolution I made was not to make any New Year's resolutions.

Ooops. Missed again.

One of the biggest problems with making New Year's Resolutions is that it over-estimates the possibilities of will-power. No matter what most of us think- we don't have enough of it to do most of what we think we want to do. Things like boredom, laziness, over-confidence, and just plain apathy work against our ability to do what we think we want to do, especially when it is too much like too much effort. So all those non-lost pounds and those non-exercising hours take over and we give up.

Failures. Maybe next time....

That is why we need grace. The same is true for so much of our lives, not just the soon-to-be-forgotten resolutions.

Which brings me to a comment here on the blog on New Year's Eve. DC said:"Nothing stays the same.....except sin." Change is what we can expect in the new year, of course. There will be surprises and things we would never expect. Yet, in the end the same old inability to overcome our inabilities continues to undermine what we want and what we do. It may be an over-statement to say that giving up on resolutions is "sin."

But it takes us to Paul and one of his most profound observations:

The good that I want to do, I can't seem to get done. The evil that I want to stay away from, well, that's what I end up doing.

Sin. Missing the mark. Not living up to my own expectations of myself, let alone God's.

So God invented- and has lived- grace. God's love is so big and broad and deep that we can never earn it. But it is clear that God wants us to have it. That is why we were created. Because that love is so great, God gives it to us- even when we don't deserve it. If we deserved it, it wouldn't be grace.

As I start this new year that thought and experience will keep me going many times as it has in the past. I will know when I fail that I can return for forgiveness and love. I will also know that in Jesus Christ I will be able to live that love and grace.

Thanks be to God in this new year.