It’s halfway through January and I’m late in writing about the New Year, resolutions and all of the potential that comes with a fresh 365.  Add not procrastinating to my list of things that could use a little tweaking in 2012.  It’s fascinating how the simplest of math equations can whip our perspectives into shape.  With the addition of one, we find ourselves viewing every aspect of our lives through a filter of improvement.  Lose weight.  Check.  Save more.  Check.  Give more.  Check.  Write more, work smarter…and on and on.  Let’s just say I have no shortage of opportunities to be better.

It’s a cleansing process for believers and non-believers alike.  Like magic, the calendar flips and clean slates arrive on every door step.   As we count down the year that was, it’s all about the year that could be.  Everything feels possible and we make radical statements like ‘this will be the best year of my life!’.  I’ve done it almost every year.  In fact, I told my wife on New Year’s Eve, that 2012 will be the greatest of our marriage.  Two weeks into it and I’m already seeing old habits of 2011 dying hard.  I’m watching way too much television and still eating garbage even though I’m on the verge of turning 34 armed with the metabolism of a 50 year-old.  I’ve been stumbling from the starting blocks up to this point and I’m not even out of January.  So far, 2012 looks eerily like 2011 and I’m far from psyched.  2011 wasn’t a disaster, in fact I feel like learned more about God last year than any other, but I want more for my wife and kids than what I’ve delivered in the past.  I want to do more for God.  I want to look good for my wife, God knows she deserves it.  I think I’ve exhausted the real-life King of Queens gimmick and it’s time to tighten up in a big way.  It’s get right, or find myself wheezing as I struggle to make it to my seat all of three rows up at my boys’ little league games.  It’s develop some sort of willpower or be doomed to wear t-shirts while swimming for the rest of my days.  It’s not a good look and everyone who would have to bear witness to that scene deserves better.

The struggle with being a lard is an easy one on which to focus, but in no way am I saying it’s the most important area of my life that needs serious attention.  Like alot of things, I believe it’s a symptom of something more dangerous than the prospect of having heart disease or diabetes.  It’s not just a love for all that is fried and smothered, it’s a manifestation of a lack of discipline that can cripple the best intentioned.  The same voice that tells me to reach for the 4th or 5th slice of stuffed crust is the same voice that tells me that I don’t have to pick up my bible, that it can wait.  Why study God’s word when there are Oreos that were foolish enough to think they could hide from me.  If it’s not food, then there’s always some horrible reality television to get into and, just like that, the day is done.  A day just like far too many other days.

So how is this year going to be any different?  So far, I’ve painted a pretty bleak picture but I have hope.  I have the promise from a Savior that serves as a New Year’s slate cleaning every time I screw up and cry out in repentence.  I have instructions for how to truly make this year the best year of my life, my wife’s life and lives of three baby boys counting on daddy to get it right this year and the years to come.  One day at a time to make changes, to make a difference and to make some noise in a lost and dying world.

I’m gonna kick things off with some deep knee bends and then probably get into some squat thrusts.  Luckily the case of Zubaz pants I ordered just arrived so it’s about…to…get…serious.