Happy "Pimped Out" New Year!

This morning I set a world record for the shortest amount of time to hold a New Years Resolution. Unfortunately after beginning the paperwork, I was told that a witness from the Guiness corporation needed to be onhand to witness my flop before it was recorded in the Book of World Records. I'll make sure they get my Christmas Card next year...

Prior to our move, I had been doing pretty well at keeping in shape. I ran two or three miles, two or three times a week, in addition to playing softball and volleyball with the guys from church. But a new job, finals, packing, moving, and Christmas bumped my exercise regimen down on the priority list. Although I know I should excercise, I hate excercise with the white hot intensity of a thousand flames, so watching it fall off my to do list was not a sad occasion. Nevertheless, now that we're starting to get unpacked, I resolved to get back into some type of excercise program.

Right.

This morning I woke up with a cough, and a stopped up nose. God doesn't want me to excercise, I'm sure of it.

So I started over from scratch. After all... what's really important? Shaving ten seconds off my mile time, or growing closer to God? (Feel free to comment on the art and grace with which I justified my failure of the first set of resolutions).

This year, instead of making a major resolution (turning this ship requires small adjustments), I decided to set some goals for my devotionals this year. You might remember, I talked about pimping my devotional time several weeks ago. When I do things right, I set New Years resolutions every month, so it only goes to reason that I should start the year by planning to do my devotional time right. So if you're interested in this philosophy and don't already have a devotional plan in place, I'd encourage you to work alongside me this year. From time to time, I'll post some of my observations/applications, and expand a little on how I go through the process. There are certainly other ways, but this one has made a huge difference in my lifel maybe it will do the same for you.

Check out the link above if you need a refresher on the "rules." (Make sure to read the comment I made about commentaries. That's pretty important to the overall philosophy... I very rarely use commentaries for my devotional time because I tend to cheat when the going gets tough, which defeats the purpose).

If you're up to it, here's the schedule I plan to follow this year:

January - 1 Samuel
February - Luke
March - Ezra
April - 1 Thessalonians
May - Esther
June - 1 John
July - Lamentations
August - 1 Peter
September - 1 Kings
October - Colossians
November - 2 Kings
December - Titus

2006, here I come!