In Which I Channel Scrooge for Some Commentary on New Year's Resolutions:

 I guess I'm a New Year's Scrooge. Since I spent a few years in academe, I suppose I should come up with a seventy-five cent word (inflation) to describe my lack of excitement about changing the calendar on the wall. How about annodisapprobationism?

Here are some reasons for my ADS (AnnoDisapprobation Syndrome):

• I don't drink & can't dance, so that eliminates a lot of the celebration associated with New Year festivities.
• On those occasions when I have stayed up to watch the ball drop, my main thought has been about how much money it cost the City of New York to clean up all that confetti, gum wrappers, and who-knows-what. Why doesn't the Big Apple just announce a shutdown of Times Square, and use the money they save to hire some extra police, build a school, or a homeless shelter, or something worthwhile? Hardly Dick Clark like thoughts. (To those of you who object, that New York makes money on tourism, I say, "Bahh This-is-my-blog Humbug.")
• Having lived for a time where "America's Day Begins," on Guam where it is already fifteen hours in the future, I cynically ask, "Who told New York that they get to be the one who takes the old calendar down? Aren't they the home of the Yankees?" Don't get me started.
• To all the gushy people on TV who wax eloquent about all the opportunities the New Year will bring, I say, "Bahh Chronological  Humbug." If they really want a new start in the New Year wouldn't they be better off getting a good night's sleep.
• Who or what is "Auld Lang Syne" anyhow? 

As the noneventful passing of 1999 to 2000 demonstrated, the passage from one year to another is really no different than any other passage from 11:59:59 to 12:00, or 00:00. (To those who want to argue about the precise time a new day, and in this case, the New Year, begins, I say, "Bahh Overly-Persnickety Humbug." The fact remains, there is nothing magical about this new day. In reality, significant days, be their significance good or bad, are spread throughout the calendar. 

Warning! I'm reeling in my curmudgeonly attempt at humor and getting serious now.

When people ask me if I have made my New Year's Resolutions yet, I generally try to brush the question aside. OK, I'm not completely done with being a curmudgeon. The fact is, I sort of don't like the question. My reaction is not unlike what a "Merry Christmas" produced in the heart of the unreformed Scrooge. Let me explain.

I'm not opposed to resolutions. But, I do find it unhelpful to think that resolving is a once a year exercise.

• I doubt that Abram waited until whatever the last day of the Ur-ite calendar was to resolve to obey and go "out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance . . . not knowing where he was going" (Heb 11:8). When I become aware that God has spoken it is always time for resolute obedience.
• I don't think Daniel "Purposed in heart" (I love that KJV-ism) because it was a special day in the calendar, either Jewish or Babylonian, rather it was because the demand of circumstance happened to meet the barrier of conviction on that day. To quote the Apostles who followed in Daniel's civil-disobedient train, "We must obey God rather than men" (Ac 5:29). 
• It wasn't at a "Watchnight Service" that Paul said, "I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:14). If he were at a church's gathering called to "pray in the New Year" (a worthy thing to do, by the way) he might very well have preached that sermon, but the tense of the verb he used indicated that there never was a time in which Paul did not press on with resolve. 

You can supply many more Biblical and Historical examples. The fact is, a deliberate, determined, unsatisfied-with-the-status-quo, disciplined, obedient-to-God, resolute mindset is how we should always live.

If December 31/January 1 serves as a reminder for you then feel free to ignore everything the old curmudgeon who started this post said. Go ahead, RESOLVE!

I'll make a broad suggestion, you fill in the measurable, achievable, appropriate particulars.

LIVE FOR JESUS.

A Friend Who Was Wrong, But Not Wrong About Everything

 As a preacher I've made and not kept this promise many times; I'll be brief.

Over the past few years, I have appreciated David French's commentaries on culture and American life. Recently, he came down in support of the Respect for Marriage Act. Fellow Evangelical Al Mohler criticised him sharply for this. (You can look up the exchange if you want.) I've kind of mulled this over for several days. While I admire French's desire to respect pluralism in American life, I think he crossed a line on this one. I agree with Mohler. Marriage is a definable thing. It can't be remade into whatever we, or the zeitgeist of our time desires. It's a line we shouldn't cross.

Let me explain that while I have appreciated French's thoughtful approach to big questions, I haven't appreciated him enough to pay for his stuff. My interaction with him has been largely limited to a free article that comes my way once a week, or so. This morning, I saw the freebie in my inbox. "Should I read it?" I thought. "I mean, he was wrong about the marriage thing."

Well, I'm glad I did open his piece. Actually, his piece did, sort of, have something to do with what I'm saying, but that wasn't the point he was making. If you read his piece, you may say he is actually saying the opposite. We can discuss that in the comments. For now, I'd encourage you read what he says, "Remembering What Repentance Looks Like."