Be it resolved that…

The new year is here and I’m going to try something a lit bit different, something, in fact, that I have actively avoided for many years: I’m going to make some New Year’s resolutions. I’ve avoided them mainly because I saw them as pointless, since they’re so often quickly abandoned. To combat that, here’s my plan: I’m going to post them publicly here, and then give monthly updates on my status. That may bore some, but, if I have public scrutiny (even if it’s only my wife who reads this), my hope is the shame of failure will encourage me to persevere. 🙂 With that said, here goes…

• Be more consistent with my daily Scripture reading. A healthy Christian life is impossible unless one actively digs into God’s Word, and I’ve been very inconsistent in doing so, and I think it shows (to me at least). My plan, then, is to develop or pick a plan for reading the Bible in a coherent fashion (not just jumping around, but methodically walking through a passage, book, topic, etc). I also intend to go beyond simply reading, and take a real deep dive into the text, doing my best to exegete as much as possible, using commentaries, dictionaries, language analysis (see below), etc. Simply, move beyond Scripture reading to real, consistent, Scripture study.
• Memorize more verses. It is rightly noted that when Jesus was tempted, he didn’t power through it by sheer will power. Rather, he quoted Bible verses. My goal, then, is to memorize at least one, but probably not more than 2, verses/passages per month.
• Redouble my Koine Greek efforts. As some of you may know, for almost two years now, I have been learning Koine Greek (the language that most of the New Testament was written in) with a friend of mine. My goal for the year is to make the Greek text a bigger part of my daily study, with a goal of being able to do most of my daily reading and studying in the Greek by year’s end. It’s an ambitious goal, but one must aim high, right? <hum>Off we go into the wild blue yonder!</hum>
• Run/exercise more consistently. Everyone says that, right? 🙂 Well, like “everyone,” I’m going to pursue it. Last year, I ran a 5K leg in the OKC Marathon. That was in April. I didn’t run once after that. Shame! 🙂 The guys I ran it with have made it a goal to run, as a group, the 5K in the Redbud Classic this year. I need to get ready for that, and then continue to “train” after it’s over. My gut, my heart, and my family will all appreciate the effort.

At the moment, that’s all that comes to mind, though I will likely amend the list should something worthwhile come to mind. Around the first of each month, I’ll try to post an update on my progress. My apologies if that bores you. 🙂