Looking for higher resolution help
Tuesday, December 30, 2008 3:18 PM EST

“New Year's Day is every man's birthday,” said the late 18th- early 19th-century English writer Charles Lamb.

I don't know where and when the tradition of making New Year's resolutions originated. I'm sure that information (probably several versions of it) is readily available on the Internet; and if I had more time, I'd research it. But since we're on early deadline this week because of the New Year's holiday, I'll make do with saying that I think making New Year's resolutions is a noble, worthwhile tradition.

The idea of getting off to a fresh start - out with the old, in with the new - can be quite appealing. Moving beyond the failures (whether real or perceived) of the past year toward a new, improved way of life.

And yet, making changes is often so difficult. Making lasting changes - sticking with them - is often even more so.

For years, I've abstained from making New Year's resolutions, because I found that I never could keep them, anyway. The best way to avoid the feelings of frustration and failure that came with making resolutions and not sticking with them, I thought, was to just not make resolutions to start with.

I realize, though, that this is a defeatist attitude, and a negative way of looking at things in general.

Besides, this year, there are just some things I know I need to change. I don't feel compelled to list them here. Readers probably aren't even interested, anyway. But there are definitely some areas in my life that need work.

And there's the rub: Change takes work. It would be great if I could wake up on New Year's Day, snap my fingers and say, “OK, this year, everything is different.” Then, in that ideal world, everything that I want to change about myself would be different.

But I've learned through bitter experience that life doesn't work that way.

I'm not the first person to discover this, of course. About 2,000 years ago, the Apostle Paul wrote of struggling to change, too: “For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing,” (Rom. 7:19, New International Version).

St. Paul apparently was so frustrated by the situation that he went on to write: “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me Š?” (7:24).

He goes on to answer his own question, however: “Thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (7:25).

So, that's what I must cling to this year as I plug away at trying to change the things about myself that I know need changing. I will echo the words of modern theologian and author Philip Yancey in his book, “Reaching for the Invisible God:”

“That's my prayer, I guess: To believe in the possibility of change.”

Mr. Yancey, myself and anyone who feels hopeless about the prospect of keeping his New Year's resolutions this year would be well advised to remember Jesus' words in Matthew 19:26: “ Š With God all things are possible.”

- Clay Wilson, Publisher

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