Welcome to 2007. Have you made your resolution yet? Have you broken your resolution yet? My resolution this year is 800*600. That was also last year’s resolution.

800*600 is the resolution that I run my computer’s monitor at. There are times when I have to go higher, for specialized tasks, but those are exceptions. Generally, I am able to keep my resolutions. I’ve been able to keep my resolutions since the 640*480 era in computers. That is a good thing unless you want to set higher goals that are not as easy to keep.

Why do I use a computer resolution as my New Year’s resolution? It is not that I am trying to be funny because, Lord knows, I cannot do that. I selected New Year’s day as the one day of the year when I do not resolve to do better with the life that I have been given. Improvement is always welcome, but I make no New Year’s resolution.

My thinking is that, like Christmas, the world would be a better place if we tried to do better every day of the year. This is not some positivist creed with a short sighted, moving target. God gave me a higher standard to live up to and I am nowhere near getting there. I will have need of improvement as long as I am left in the game of life. No day will pass in which I will not do something wrong in some measure.

If you make a resolution one day of the year, then you fail the moment that you break that one resolution. ‘Walking the walk’ means every step that you take, not just the steps that you take until you stub your toe on something. It is a gradual process of getting up and dusting yourself off every time that you fall. The road is not moving. Taking the steps to get there is entirely up to you.

What would the world be like if we recognized the Christmas spirit every day of the year? What if we fed the hungry instead of being taxed by a bureaucracy that administrates feeding the hungry with whatever’s left? Do you feel for the people on the streets? Is your first impulse to send off a prayer to ‘our government who art in D.C.?’ Would it not be better to resolve to help just one person you meet?

How much does a smile cost? Can you afford to give one to the grumpy neighbor who is having a hard day? Have you considered resolving to give a smile to just a few people that you do not know? “Bless him who curses you.”

I am not asking you if you can live in denial. There is real evil in the world and denying it, living under tie-dyed peace signs is not really going to effect that. We get a choice on how we will resolve to deal with that evil. It is our choice if we curse God and join the evil of the day or if we recognize that God is where he sends us. You can resolve not to pass the buck.

Stand-up philosophy is not that effective at changing the world. I do not believe that it was meant to be. Man will fight over anything. That is what Man is best at. You change the world by changing hearts and minds, one at a time. Can you resolve to do that?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007 at 12:01 am and is filed under Eightballs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.