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Good morning Let’s talk about New Year Resolutions.

This year I plan to get more exercise. Just to go jogging round the block whenever possible. But already, it’s only day 4 I’m finding those damp, dark early mornings pretty hard going. Many of us aim to start the new year with new objectives…perhaps it’s time for a bit of encouragement to keep us all going.

That begins, at least for me, with an attitude check: not so much about the resolutions themselves as how we approach them. There are two ways to live. To imagine perfection as if you’ll never break them or to imagine breaking them as if you’re full of imperfection. I’d like to recommend the latter approach.

If I start with the assumption of perfection, there’s only one direction of travel and that’s downhill. I can only fail in trying to be perfect because I’m human. If I’m really determined to continue to appear perfect, then I’ll end up living a life of deception, deceiving myself or others when I fail. If I get tied up in knots trying to keep up the superhuman front then it may be best to keep other people at a safe distance.

Alternatively, I can begin from the place of imperfection. Resolutions offer something to strive for, a better person to become, in the hope of minimising one or two of the myriad of imperfections that beset me.Ìý I’m going to recognise every failure as an invitation to learn, and acknowledge that I’ve got a long way to go. Others will likely see my brokenness, but hopefully they’ll glimpse some healing too.

Lord God, Give me the humility to know my own shortcomings and to live not in my own strength but your grace. May I strive not so much to be a super human but to be a model of your super healing in my brokenness.

Amen.

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