As I listened to him reel them off over hot chocolate I hoped desperately that he wouldn't ask me the dreaded question, but he did,
"What about you?"
"I haven't made any... I kind of make it up as I go along"
His face registered disappointment... for some reason the kid looks up to me. Good... now he realises that this 'paragon' has feet of clay!
Sounds lame, but really... I don't have any official ANNUAL resolutions. I've made small plans that are not as life altering as his
1) Get costumes for January and February fancy dress parties. February is sorted - sexy swinging sixties mini dress. Now all I need is get one for the Japanese themed Harajuku party on 30 Jan.
2) Pass my Internal Auditor exams which are part of my new job - Yati has warned that I will have to sacrifice my social life (Gasp... cannot begin to even comprehend this...)
3) NOT go on a diet!
4) Attend any free dance classes available- starting with the Samba ones at Guanabara
5) Snog Michael...
I suppose, being a Christian and what not, I really should include a 'Christian' Resolution in the mix. Our first sermon of the year was about the cost of being a Christian and what it means to share in the death of Jesus.
I don't want to be a martyr.WHAT I REALLY WANT is to challenge and dispel stereotypes that non-Christians (and lets be honest... some Christians) have of the Christian God. For a long time I've been thinking that if people truly UNDERSTOOD the nature of God, which is LOVE, they would not reject Him. Instead, what they DO reject is the image that we as a Church have presented to them. Which on the whole is not good!
At the moment there are posters on London Buses that say, 'There is probably no God, So now you can get on and enjoy your life' - which proves my point really about how the world perceives God - as a big gigantic kill joy and taskmaster.
Jesus said that He came to give us abundant life - would anyone in their right mind reject THAT??
Believe it or not, there are some of us Christians whose description of abundant life is not sour faced, petty, guilt driven, fearful life that seems to be the prevailing message coming from the pulpit.
The only way I can communicate the abundant Christian life is to LIVE it. To WALK THE WALK, because the people I meet are tired of TALK!
Of course, there is hardship and suffering. But I hope that I do not respond to it in a fake 'Christian' I can handle this, because God is in control way, and instead learn how to give full rein to the appropriate human emotions for that moment, acknowledging that the only thing that keeps me from total despair is my faith in a God loves me, has my best interests at heart and will pull me out of this hole.
So that's my Christian resolution - which I can't strictly call a New Year Resolution, because it wasn't just made on the 1st of January. It's been there all along, since my rebirth.
