My New Year’s resolution

Parents and grandparents, be very careful what you say to your children and grandchildren. You never know what little tidbit is going to stick with them and have a big impact on their lives.

For about thirty years, before she passed away in 1989, my grandmother lived by herself—a widow—in a small house on the top of a large hill in the middle of nowhere in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. (The photo you see is Grandmom at my wedding in 1988.) She was a dedicated Christian woman, and a great cook. I have fond memories of spending Thanksgivings at her house with all of my cousins, playing on the hill and eating all of her apple, blackberry, cherry, and other pies. At other times she would spend all day making perogies—a Polish dish that was a family favorite.

On one visit to Grandmom’s house, when I was about twelve, I was snooping around in her living room, and I saw a big book opened up, written in some unrecognizable foreign language. Unbeknownst to me, she was watching me, and noticed my bewilderment at the book. She told me that it was her Slovak Bible. She was born to parents who had come to America from Eastern Europe, so she knew Slovak.

What she said next has stayed with me to this very day. She said that she had read through the Bible each year for thirty-seven years, and this year, for a change of pace, she was reading through the Bible in Slovak.

Now, as a pre-teen, and even in my teenage years, I did not give the comment too much thought. But in my twenties, I began to try to read the Bible all the way through. Every year I made a New Year’s resolution to read my entire Bible-In-A-Year. I think there was one year when I made it to the end of January before quitting. In other years, I don’t think I even made it to January 15th. With each year’s failure, I began to give more and more thought to Grandmom’s incredible testimony. How in the world did she do it? I couldn’t even make it through the Bible once, let alone thirty-seven times.

When I hit my mid-thirties, still failing every year, a significant thought dawned on me. I calculated that when Grandmom told me about her Bible reading, she was about seventy-four years old. “If that’s the case,” I thought, “then she didn’t even make it through the Bible for the first time until she was about thirty-seven!” There was still hope for me!

In 2004, I received one of the best presents I’ve ever gotten. For my birthday, my wife gave me “The Bible on CD.” I started listening to it while commuting to and from work. I figured that if I wasn’t going to read the Bible all the way through, I could at least listen to the whole thing.

Well, guess what? I listened through the entire Bible for four years in a row, 2005 to 2008. It’s not easy, because the Bible is a long book (64 long CDs in the version I own). And there are certainly stretches of the Bible that are difficult to get through. But I have come to two very important realizations. First, once I got through the Bible the first time, doing it again wasn’t nearly as hard. Second, the more I listen to the Bible, the more interesting it becomes. Even many of the “boring” stretches have become a lot more intriguing to me.

Now the bad news. In 2009 I didn’t make it. So, my New Year’s resolution in 2010 is to get back on the wagon and listen to the entire Bible once again. I am very excited about doing so.

Oh, and there’s one more thing. As a seminary student who feels God’s call to teach the Bible vocationally, I am learning Hebrew and Greek, the original languages in which the Bible was written. As such, I will be studying and reading the Bible in those languages for the rest of my life. My eventual goal is to get to a point where, instead of reading or listening to the Bible-in-a-year in English, that I will do so in Hebrew and Greek. Maybe I won’t be able to get there for another twenty years, but that’s my goal.

Impossible, you say? Well, I’ll tell you, sometimes when I feel a little overwhelmed with my biblical studies, or wonder if I will ever master Hebrew and Greek, I’ll think of Grandmom, sitting at the table all by herself up there on top of that hill in Pottstown, faithfully reading her Bible, year in and year out, in English and in Slovak. She probably didn’t think too much of it when she told me about her Bible reading and her Slovak Bible, but it has had in indelible effect on my life, and has been a huge encouragement to me in my journey of learning to be faithful to God’s Word.

Beware of the “resolutionaries”

Well, let me start out by wishing everyone a very Happy New Year. I hope the holidays went well for all. I am very excited about 2010. I think it is going to be a stellar year (I already have a few surprises in mind for the blog). In fact, 2010 has gotten off to a fast start, as I have already set two personal records.

First, as of 2:00 P.M. on January 2nd, all of my outside Christmas lights were taken down, labeled, boxed, and back in storage. (I always label them and write myself a little note to remind myself how I put them up and what I need to buy for next year. Come December, when I reopen the box, I am always appreciative of myself for doing so.) This shatters my previous mark by at least several days. As a bona fide procrastinator, my lights are usually still up by the first full weekend after the holidays, and at times until MLK weekend. Of course at some point I unplug them to avoid the unspoken embarrassment from within the neighborhood. Worse yet, I admit that there have been years when bundled up strands of lights have sat in my garage for a few months before I finally rolled them up and put them away. But this year was a different story.

Second, on Saturday, my boys and I went to the local high school football field to kick some field goals, and I connected from thirty-eight yards, a personal record. My previous best was thirty. I was pretty happy, especially given that I have never formally played as kicker or punter on a team. Nor have I ever played soccer. You know, on television, a thirty-eight yard field goal looks pretty easy. These college and pro kickers normally make these field goals with no problem. But standing out there on a field, it looks kind of far away. I’ll be shooting for forty the next time out. Anyway, I think you will agree that the only possible interpretation of this success is that it is a harbinger of good things to come and indicative that 2010 will be a great year.

I will share my New Year’s resolutions with you soon. In the meantime, I wish you the best in keeping your resolutions. I do recommend, however, that you stay away from the gym for a few days. As you are no doubt aware, the Monday after the holidays is the most crowded day of the year in the workout room. This day is to fitness centers what the Sunday after Thanksgiving is to the nation’s highways. If your New Year’s resolution is to lose weight and work out more often, I think that is great—I would just suggest you start tomorrow, or even next week. On this day several years ago, while I was in the locker room unable to find space to change into my workout clothes, a co-worker warned me to “beware of the resolutionaries.” “Resolutionaries” was his term for those who crowd the gym for a week or so after the holidays, then you never see them again. So, I likewise say to you, beware of the resolutionaries. And don’t be one.

Until next time.