麻豆社

Good Morning! When I was a boy, it was often the day before New Year鈥檚 Eve when my mother encouraged me to give serious thought to making a few New Year Resolutions. I still recall some of the things I wrote and very often repeated the following year. Like 鈥淚 will get out of bed in the morning as soon as I鈥檓 called鈥�. Well over sixty years later that one still gives me a considerable amount of bother.

One year I concluded the only safe way to carry out the exercise was to resolve not to do things I had little or no chance of doing anyway. So I resolved I would not attempt to to break the four minute barrier for running the mile- actually in my case eight or nine minutes might just have been a much more realistic target. And then I resolved to make no more New Year Resolutions.

Except鈥�except that every year after Christmas, the thought does come to me that it wouldn鈥檛 be the worst thing I could do if I made up my mind to make a few changes in my life.. It鈥檚 a time when, there鈥檚 a tendency to look back, sometimes with regret and a tendency to look forward with a mixture of anticipation and apprehension. So I almost I inevitably think there must be things I could do to make me easier to get on with, or more generous in my assessments and opinions, or more ready to listen to others,. I don鈥檛 write these out but I would like to think they鈥檙e not just thoughts that will disappear once we鈥檙e into January.

What is required then? I suppose I could go to no better place than the book of the prophet Micah, where the question is asked 鈥淲hat does the Lord require of you?

So we pray: Help us to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with you, our God. Amen