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| Canadian Geese in Central Park--A photo I took in early spring 2010 |
1. To become the best Christian I possible can. (This has nothing to do with going to church and socializing and doing good deeds. It has to do with obeying God instead of myself.)
2. All the other things that everyone else wants for improving their lives, but not if it conflicts with what God wants. He comes first. The big problem is knowing what he wants. In other words, separating out the chaff of one's life and leaving it behind.
Will I ever accomplish any of this? I have been accomplishing it most of my life tiny step by tiny step, but I still have so far to go.
The value of making New Year's resolutions is that it makes one give a few minutes of thought to their inner life. Even just wanting to exercise more and get one's body in shape is, in a way, thinking spiritually, because to improve one's body takes self-discipline. So to improve the self physically one must attend to one's health, which means eating what one should and not what one might prefer. Not that many people can do that. That takes some degree of inner strength. Doing what we should and not what we want is getting closer to God. This has been the major conflict of my life. I think it's the major conflict of anyone who has any degree of spirituality.
Although, I talk about the spiritual life and the physical part of life as two separate quantities, I don't think you can separate them. The proof of this is how much our minds affect our bodies and our health. People with sick minds usually have sick bodies. While reading the Bible recently (something I don't do often enough), I came across a passage (it may be in St. Mark) that a whole person has no need for doctors. To be a whole person is my ultimate resolution.
