My Aim for 2010

This 1997 song from Delirious?, embodies my "new year's resolution." I intend to grow deeper in my relationship with Jesus Christ. I feel certain that I've posted this song before. No matter. It's a great song and speaks my heart on December 31, 2009.



Here are the lyrics:

I want to go deeper
But I don't know how to swim
I want to be meeker
But have you seen this old earth?
I want to fly higher
But these arms won't take me there
I want to be, I want to be

Maybe I could run
Maybe I could fly, to you
Do you feel the same
When all you see is
Blame in me?

And the wonder of it all is that I'm living just to fall
More in love with you [x2]

I want to go deeper
But is it just a stupid whim?
I want to be weaker
Be a help to the strong
I want to run faster
But this old leg won't carry me
I want to be, I want to be

Maybe I could run
Maybe I could fly, to you
Do you feel the same
When all you see is
Blame in me?

And the wonder of it all is that I'm living just to fall
More in love with you [x2]

Maybe I could run
Maybe I could follow
It's time to walk the path
Where many seem to fall
Hold me in your arms
Just like any father would
How long do we have to wait?
How long, we're going all the way

And the wonder of it all is that I'm living just to fall
More in love with you

Written by Martin Smith/Stuart Garrard �1997 Curious? Music UK

(Delirious? is no more, having finished their seventeen years together with a European farewell tour and a final concert in London last month. But what a body of work and what a witness for the God Who sets out to save the world through the crucified and risen Jesus!]

My New Year's Resolutions

In younger years, my new year's resolutions were, I have to admit, marked by pomposity. There's nothing like butting up against life to make a person rethink setting grandiose goals.

It isn't that I don't believe in having dreams. I still believe in them. But I also think that resolutions ought to be marked by a realistic assessment of one's self and, speaking for myself anyway, the right motives.

I recently linked to a post by happiness-seeker Gretchen Rubin on guidelines for sticking to new year's resolutions. I liked what she wrote. As I indicated in my post, the only thing I would add is the need to undergird our resolutions with prayer.

There are several reasons for that, two most notably. First, when we pray about something, we invite God in. God can give us the power, motivation, and insight needed to keep our resolutions or to change them, if necessary. Second, when we pray about something, we're reminded of it. Praying underscores our resolutions as priorities for us.

While my resolutions for 2009, have a bit more detail to them than presented here, I list them in hopes that they might motivate you to make your own simple new year's resolutions...and to make more accountable for keeping mine:

• Pray more.
• Study more.
• Work out the same amount of time I've been dedicating to it in the past month or so.
• Blog less.

That's it.

Do you have any new year's resolutions?

Whatever your answer may be to that question, thanks for being a reader of Better Living and God bless you with a goo 2009.