The last couple years I’ve made resolutions, posted them publicly, then reviewed my progress publicly as well. This is good accountability especially since there are some significant consequences of breaking resolutions even though it’s so easy to do.
We are always to be progressing in our devotion to Christ and good resolutions are made with that in mind. Spiritual transformation and progress is essential — not optional — for Christ followers. Therefore it is not only beneficial to consider our failures, weaknesses, and sin and address them, it is needful! And it is needful not only on a yearly basis, but on a weekly basis, a daily basis, and even an hourly or moment-by-moment basis. Examining our lives once a year is like examining our course from 30,000 feet — we get a good view but we’re too far away to change much. Of course from the five foot view we can deal with a lot of things but we can’t always recognize past patterns and potential pitfalls.
So a multi-prong, near and far examination is good, and the following is my bird’s eye, end of year assessment. I made five resolutions for 2007; here’s how I did.
- Less fiddling
My first resolution was also my most successful. My fingers have done minimal tweaking on my blog template or the one28 site. Almost all under the hood work on those sites was purposeful and productive. Likewise I have been employing a stable GTD set-up for more than the second half of the year. With the help of Google Calendar, Basecamp, and my iPhone I’ve actually done more working on my tasks than working on my task list.
- More (hand)writing
There were two parts to this resolution: writing more and writing more by hand. I definitely progressed in handwriting, using an Italian fountain pen on yellow legal pads or in a Moleskine notebook. Every sermon I’ve preached in the last few months was scribbled first on paper. The conentration and joy I get from the writing process (not the penmanship) is worth the extra time and something I plan to continue. As for actually writing more? There was nothing prolific so I’m headed back to the writing board.
- More (offline) reading
Book reading is back in a big way and my blog subscriptions are slipping in the right direction. Nevertheless I still find myself filling small banks of minutes with the banality of Google Reader or “opening all in tabs” instead of traversing another four pages of really beautiful or beneficial ground. Maybe some daily, personal internet protocol is in order for the new year.
- More (out-loud) praying
Spontaneous prayer has been strong in the last couple months of 2007, and I’ve especially embraced my role as “head” prayer at home for meals or bedtime. I also know that time with God in private whets my mind, calms my worries, and quickens my affections yet scheduled times of struggle and lingering are still lower than desired. All that to say, I made progress with spacious room for improvement.
- Be (radically) thankful
I have been thankful, and I’m thankful for that. I am both content with what I have and appreciative of an almost innumerable collection of tangible and intangible gifts from gracious people over the past year. As my kids grow and as my complete helplessness is further exposed, I’m thankful for God’s care. The repetition about the fear of God has not been in vain for me as I am really enjoying the process more (though not perfectly), whether traffic or interruptions or accidents as well as the obvious goods.
So overall there has been progress. I love my sheep, my family, and my Lord more than the same time last year. I think the increase in gray hair demonstrates that I’m (at least a little) wiser, not just older. I’m tired but eager to keep moving. I praise God for His strength behind my strides and blame my own sin for any and all steps back. Thank you, Lord, for being faithful to conform me into the image of Your Son; please don’t stop.
4 Comments
I definitely agree with the writing by hand. While I do have music notation software for making final copies, I always enjoy writing out music by hand first. I actually got myself a Moleskine notebook recently, and it’s invaluable when it comes to keeping track of at least most of the information I’m blitzkrieged with every day.
But where exactly does one acquire an Italian fountain pen?
Phil, sorry it’s taken me so long to reply. I’ve been out of town and out of touch with the void. As for the Italian fountain pen, I’m both thrilled and sorry to say that it was a gift from a friend who was traveling through Italy. But I think you can order one through the link in the post itself. You will however notice a picture of my Italian mini Trend in a newer post.
Hmmm, $105 for a pen? eBay it is! :-)
By the way, I wrote a post about the MacBook Air. I’m curious as to what you think of it, because so far I’ve heard mixed opinions about it.
Hi, Phil, been out of town again, this time in six feet of snow over six days (though at least the temperature was above zero). As for the Air, I can’t say much until seeing/holding one in person. At this point, as long as it has a sturdy feel (your concern with fragility), I think it will be a very sweet machine (though I might never purchase one myself). Obviously there are some performance issues compared to desktop-replacement laptops, but I almost never use my optical drive, besides, the optical drive is almost always the first thing to go on any computer I’ve owned. I tend to agree with those reviews that point out the form factor as the killer feature regardless of hard drive capacity, processor speed, irreplaceable battery, etc. All that to say, I’m eager to visit my local Apple Store and see it for myself. Last time I had that same feeling I walked away with a new iPhone.