I prefer the concept of renewal rather than resolutions. Renewal does not set you up for failure if you can't stay on a diet or find yourself better organized. Renewal does not wallow in guilt for infractions, it merely pushes the, "RESET," button and gives it another shot.
Renewal means we are always a work in progress, taking three steps forward and incuring two steps back as we relapse, but rather than giving us permission to give up, renewal calls us to restore our initial hope, to replenish our original vision, to reestablish and recover that vision that moved us to improve our situation in the first place. Renewal is about perseverance, both in an existential sense and a theological reality.
Renewal is the ultimate, "Mulligan," for those of us who don't play golf, unless you're playing with some of those ruthless colleagues in ministry who invite me out to be the patsy. There is no mercy amongst ministers!
Renewal won't let us give up. A quote attributed to Pope John XXIII sums up my ideal defintion of renewal, and encourages me to keep on going:
"Consult not your fears,
but your hopes and dreams.
Think not about your frustrations,
but about your unfulfilled potential.
Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed,
but with what is still possible for you to do."
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