One of my least favorite holidays is upon us. I have never liked New Years. First of all, even in my younger years, staying up until midnight always felt like a chore. I need my beauty sleep, and this holiday robs me of that. Plus, there is the subtle but true reality that absolutely nothing changes from 11:59 PM on December 31 to 12:00 AM January 1 other than our calendars. Cynical? You bet. But I've just never gotten next to this holiday.
One of the hardest part of this holiday has always been the tradition of naming your new years resolutions. Inevitably someone will ask me what I have resolved to do in 2016, and I will feel obligated to respond. So I always have a couple of stock answers in my back pocket. "I'm going to loose 25 pounds." "I'm going to read more." "I'm finally going to clean up my office." Believe me when I tell you that if you hear one of those three answers from me, I have zero intention of doing what I'm saying. I just don't want to feel left out of the celebration of New Years. And statistics show us, neither do you. Most people give up on their resolutions by February.
But this year I have to admit is a little different. So much will be radically different in my life in the coming year. Seminary, a 10 year battle with myself, will be done. I keep thinking about it, and have absolutely no idea how that's going to change my day to day life moving forward, other than I think it's going to be awesome. This summer, I will have a rest and renewal period graciously given to me by the church. I get a whole 8 weeks off to recover from the beast that is seminary, as well as 8 weeks off to get to know these little peanuts that have joined our family this year.
The point is, there are so many colossal changes coming in my life this year, that I can't help but imagine what my goals are going to be. Sarah and I sat down last night and actually wrote out some of our goals for the coming year, and it felt very much different from the "What are your new years resolutions" conversations that I typically hate so much. Goals are different from resolutions, if only in semantics. I can give up on a resolution in February because no one's going to ask me about it any more. A goal will nag at me the whole year through.
So what are your goals for the coming year? Where do you think you'll be on December 31 2016?