Rather than trying to be creative with this first of the New Year blogs, I decided to reprint the entry I composed at the beginning to last year. I believe it it carries just as much validity and purpose with the beginning of 2008 as it did on January 4th, 2007. I hope you agree..."Now that the New Year is officially underway, let me be among those to wish you a prayerful promise of a great 2008.
The St. Peterburg TIMES ran an oldie but goodie PEANUTS in the comic section on New Year's eve. The opening panel finds Snoopy lying in thoughtful repose on the snow covered ground lamenting, "So here I am starting a New Year. But am I any different? Nope! I'm the same ol' dog! Day after day and year after year...never a change." The final panel captures Snoopy atop his snow covered doghouse, thinking smugly, "Sometimes I marvel at my consistency." Personally, I an relate. You?
Tis the season, so I have come to expect, when personal resolutions are declared. They run the gamut form A to Z, all faithfully formulated to make us a better person in some respect than we were the previous year. Some are introspective...we recognize in ourselves an area or areas in our lives that requires adjustment...either by doing some things more or conversely doing some things less. Other resolutions are more or less thrust upon us by people who declare steadfastly that they "only have our best interest at heart." My dear wife, Judi, has thrust one of those types of resolutions my way...to lose the spare tire that has attached itself around my middle. I am bound by my love for her and to equally avoid her ample wrath should I decline to so otherwise. Unlike the old adage, "Getting there is half the fun," I fear that sentiment doesn't hold much validity when it shall be painfully applied to my out of shape and aging body. I'd much rather be like Snoopy and marvel at my heretofore well developed sense of complacent consistency.
So...have you made any resolutions this year? Some wise person once observed, "Confession is good for the soul, but is really bad for the reputation." I'm not asking you to come forward with a list of said resolutions. Your determination to make and keep a personal resolution is strictly your decision. That choice, not unlike life itself, is a paradox. Consider the fact of how truly blessed we are to live in this wonderful country. Compared with any standard of living, we are the most affluent society in the world...where our material welfare is virtually guaranteed, where our enemies are diligently held at bay, and the greatest majority of infectious diseases that threaten life are contained. One would surmise that we would be at our leisure to successfully figure out ways of living and relating to one another that would produce the bountiful by-products of fulfillment, happiness, and contentment. Then why is it that mental health professionals of all stripes continue to maintain burgeoning case loads? Therein lies the paradox. What is it about the human condition that it seems determined to devise self-imposed formidable roadblocks between themselves and the lives they so desperately desire?
Every spring the sock-eyed salmon swim back up the rivers and streams of Alaska to their birth place of origin. The trip is arduous in and of itself, but combine the untold perils of the journey with there being a pack of ravenous bears waiting at the top of many rapids and waterfalls along the way, waiting in anticipation to the devour the unlucky few who have the deadly misfortune of being snatched in mid-leap into their gaping jaws, and one comes to the realization that not every worthy enterprise will have a beneficial outcome. Many salmon make it to their final destination. Many do not. Some of the bears eat their fill. Some go hungry. It is a paradox of unintended consequence. Seems to me that one of the best strategies for living ones life is to understand that we each are limited in that which we can control, and to fore go the illusion and accompanying anguish that we can and must control everything.
Here's my personal resolution... To be thankful to God each and every day that He has granted me yet one more day to embrace all that He has in store for me for that one day....the good and the bad...knowing that He and He alone is "perfectly" in control of everything of consequence...that it is my task and duty to honor Him and my Savior Jesus Christ by living each moment with the peaceful knowledge and assurance that He does not expect me to be "in control of all things." Perfection is God's business. My task is to stir the pot and strive for excellence in all that I am assigned to accomplish.
Have a great first week of 2008. Enjoy each new day granted to you...be thankful for the blessings that have no price tag...and strive for excellence in all that you attempt to do. That may be the best formula for a great New Year.
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