Sunday, January 01, 2012

New Year’s Resolutions

Ok, so New Year’s resolutions seldom work, don’t last, and generally aren’t much worth the effort. But this list from John Piper’s beloved English Lit. Professor, Clyde Kilby, is a joy simply to read. Doing any one of them just once has got to make your year better.

Some samples:

  • At least once every day I shall look steadily up at the sky and remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above and about me.
  • I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their “divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic” existence.
  • Even if I turn out to be wrong, I shall bet my life on the assumption that this world is not idiotic, neither run by an absentee landlord, but that today, this very day, some stroke is being added to the cosmic canvas that in due course I shall understand with joy as a stroke made by the architect who calls himself Alpha and Omega.

Read the whole list here. It improved my already good day.

2 comments:

Bob - Mind on Fire said...

Thanks Michael; I needed some perspective this morning. Bob

Matthew said...

Thank you for sharing, a very good list that I will do my best to work through.

Matthew