I’m not much of a one for making New Year’s Resolutions. Partly because I reckon I’d break them in the first twenty-four hours, so it seems easier not to make any at all. But I guess we shouldn’t let the possibility of defeat cause us to give up the fight altogether before we’ve even begun.
It’s sometimes said that if you aim for nothing in particular, that’s exactly what you’ll achieve! So maybe some resolutions would help us to strive for something, to make some efforts. One of my resolutions for this year is to make another resolution next year.
So what should our resolutions be? Even asking ourselves what our goals (or perhaps just our “aspirations”) for 2008 ought to be could do us good. Perhaps we might even dare to hope (and pray) this New Year for something more significant than losing a few pounds. We could take the beginning of the year as the opportunity for a spiritual health check.
If we need inspiration for some New Year’s Resolutions, we could do a lot worse than look to Jonathan Edwards. Not the Olympic triple-jumper turned TV-presenter, but Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), possibly the greatest American theologian ever.
Edwards was in to resolutions in a big way. He wrote 70 before between the ages of 19 and 20. He introduced them, saying:
BEING SENSIBLE THAT I AM UNABLE TO DO ANYTHING WITHOUT GOD' S HELP, I DO HUMBLY ENTREAT HIM BY HIS GRACE TO ENABLE ME TO KEEP THESE RESOLUTIONS, SO FAR AS THEY ARE AGREEABLE TO HIS WILL, FOR CHRIST' S SAKE.
And resolved to read over them once a week.
Here are a few of my favorites.
5. Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.
6. Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.
7. Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.
And if, like me, you ever find yourself growling at your computer, you might consider this one:
15. Resolved, never to suffer the least motions of anger towards irrational beings [and I guess, we might add, objects!]
28. Resolved, to study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently, as that I may find, and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.
31. Resolved, never to say any thing at all against any body, but when it is perfectly agreeable to the highest degree of Christian honor, and of love to mankind, agreeable to the lowest humility, and sense of my own faults and failings, and agreeable to the golden rule [of doing to others as we would have them do to us]
52. I frequently hear persons in old age, say how they would live, if they were to live their lives over again: Resolved, that I will live just so as I can think I shall wish I had done, supposing I live to old age.
55. Resolved, to endeavor to my utmost to act as I can think I should do, if, I had already seen the happiness of heaven, and hell torments.
Even if Edwards seems at times to set impossibly high standards, perhaps he might inspire us to think that we could do better.
Edwards knew he was always a sinner and couldn’t keep his own resolutions. He resolved to repent as soon as he realised he’d failed. He also resolved to count up the number of times he broke a resolution every week to see if the number went up or down. A broken resolution could serve us well if it drives us back to God’s undeserved love in Christ.
Further reading:
Jonathan Edward’s resolutions can be found online in various places, including:
www.reformed.org/documents/
For an introduction to Edwards, you might try John Piper, God’s Passion For His Glory: Living the Vision of Jonathan Edwards (IVP, 1998).
There is a solid evangelical biography by Iain Murray (Banner of Truth, 1987). Perhaps the best biography (fat but surprisingly readable) is by George Marsden (Yale University Press, 2003).
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