Howdy,
By now, today you’ve doubtless heard this more than once or twice or even thrice, but let me say, “Happy New Year!”
People debated the blessings and bummers of Christmas falling on a Sunday this year (last year!), but I tell you New Year’s on a Sunday morning felt right. (After awaking enough to realize it.)
Seems counterintuitive to begin a new year at the ending, yet in another way a sermon series introduction of the Book of Revelation hit home as very appropriate. Revelation: a book about Jesus, a reminder that He’ll return, and now a time to get to know Him this year better than even any year before, as our pastor suggested.
I’ll come back to this in conclusion and reference to Marvin Olasky’s quote pictured above. First a steep jump to writing goals and word counts, really only connected because of New Year’s and goals or resolutions.
Since my birthday in October I’ve benefited from having established a nice habit of consistent writing, and I aim to keep that up, but I’m planning to pivot slightly to a word count “counter” on my site for my goal of 200,000 published words — not all only on my blog but also progress on books in the works. (Books, plural, is being aggressive and ambitious, but, hey, why not? I can do that here — and it’s New Year’s Day.) As you can now see below, in my blog posts I desire to retain the accountability to write and hit my ambitious goal with a current word count and ongoing pace for attaining 200K words in 365 days.
With daily writing for the 200K word count in a year business, I’ve felt resolved and “resolutioned” enough, as far as this time of year goes. I did, however, skim my way to something today worth taking on and sharing. It’s from Olasky in WORLD Magazine and read:
“For Christians, only one resolution is crucial: to desire, through God’s grace, to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. That means being a branch, as Christ says in John 15: ‘I am the vine; you are the branches … for apart from me you can do nothing.'”
I’ll aim for this, whether I get my writing accomplished or not.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m resolved to write (and lose weight, which we’ll touch on later), but how glorious is the daily opportunity to desire to glorify and enjoy God, in Christ?
This could be a year to know Jesus Christ better than ever and through God’s grace glorify and enjoy Him forever. Amen! What a work to accomplish. Only in abiding. A resolution to rest. In Him.
Happy New Year, indeed!
—Billy
Reading. Writing. Living.
Word Count: 44,582 / On Pace: 42,350 / Year’s Goal: 200,000
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