2010 New Year’s Resolutions

The coming of each New Year is pregnant with potential; the potential to accomplish great things; the potential to make major mistakes; the potential to change the world by reaching out and taking a hold of the God given opportunities in front of you. In years past I have let them slip by without ever challenging myself to fully engage the potential that it bared. That is not to say that I went unaccomplished, but rather that I left it not fully explored. This year I want to challenge myself to take full advantage of the potential that this New Year has, and in order to do so fully I am writing a list of seven New Year’s resolutions and they are in no particular order:
1. To Engage My Academics to My Fullest Potential: This coming semester, at Pacific Rim Christian College, I want to not just do well, I want to do my absolute best. I am more than capable of getting straight A’s in my classes without fully exerting myself academically, thus this semester I want to empty myself out by engaging fully and rigorously everything that I am asked to do this semester.
2. Complete the 52/52 Challenge: The 52/52 challenge is to read 52 books in 52 weeks (for those who are mathematically challenged that is a book a week for one year). I love to read. I love the exchange of ideas between an author and the reader. I love the robust conversation that can erupt around ideas in a particular book. So this year I want to consume and digest a rich variety of books and authors.
3. Work on My Health: Let’s face it I am not getting any younger. The longer I put off taking care of my health the harder it will be. I am roughly 80 pounds overweight. It would be nice to say that I plan to loose all that weight this year, but honestly I would ecstatic if I lost 20 pounds. So my goal for this next year is to loose at least 20 pounds and if I loose more then great.
4. Become Organized, Tidy, & Neat: I would be lying to myself and everyone else if I said that I was a highly organized, tidy, and neat. The truth is I keep all appointments mentally, my room is an ominous pile of clean clothes, and neat has never been an adjective used in front of my name. So this year my goal is to completely eradicate those problems. Psychiatrists say that it takes about three months for the brain to learn new behaviors. So I will commit this year to learning new behaviors in regards to organization, tidiness, and being neat.
5. Get into Seminary: This particular New Year’s resolution is not as easy as it sounds. I have a very good GPA, somewhere around the 3.7 mark. But grades are not my hurdle that needs jumping. The seminary that I want to attend is Fuller Theological Seminary, and being an international student I need to raise my entire degrees tuition prior to being accepted. To be exact that means I need to come up with around $48,000.00, and to assure you that is no small amount to someone who is unable to work due to my visa situation.
6. Pray More: Not that I do not pray now, but the truth is we could always spend more time seeking God in quit contemplation or beseeching Him in earnest prayer. This year I want to spend more time doing just that.
7. Launch a New Evangelistically Based Ministry: One of my favorite things is when God gives someone a fresh vision for a new ministry. Over this past year I have been in dialog with a group of young Bible College students about what effective evangelism looks like in our generation’s context. This year I want to launch a ministry with my fellow disciples of Jesus that speaks to the need for effective evangelism to my generation. Not entirely sure what this will look like, but nonetheless I would like to see it take shape this year.
So there you have it, my 2010 New Year’s resolutions. Please feel free to pray and support me as I do my best to fully explore the potential of this New Year.