My wife made me write a bunch of New Year's resolutions. She wants to carry over her family tradition of writing them on a piece of paper and stapling it to the back of this years calendar... and then checking them in December.

I was never into resolutions (or setting any kinds of goals, actually). I call it "living life day by day," but the missus calls it laziness. Writing out this year's aspirations for my life did help me put things into perspective though. The next twelve months will be less about losing weight and saving money. And more about relying on God (at work, at home, at church), more about stretching my faith, more about intimacy and passion, more about peace... about love... about Him.

Happy 2006, everybody.

I read in the paper today that the same guy who (unsuccessfully) tried to remove the phrase "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance is trying to eliminate the motto "In God We Trust" from all U.S. currency. I don't know the history of how the phrase made its way onto our cash, but I quite like the idea that in my pockets I have a half-dozen or so reminders of my faith. (I just checked my pockets. I have a fiver, a one, a couple dimes and a quarter and each one has the words stamped onto it. $6.45 worth of faith!)

Mo' money, mo' problems...
Notorious BIG

My pre-marital counseling book said that one of the leading sources of conflict in marriages is money. Having money, not having money, how to spend it, how to save it... whether married or not, it's tough to deny the role money plays in our lives. I'm thankful for those four powerful words in my butt pocket.

IN GOD WE TRUST.

I vote to make it bigger.

I have a strange memory. I'm convinced that like Daredevil--whose other senses are heightened to compensate for his blindness--my memory has it's strengths and it's failures. For the life of me, I can't remember what I got my wife for Christmas last year, but somehow I can't get rid of a single line of Ice, Ice, Baby. In general, song lyrics tend to stick well to the walls of my brain... which brings me to Psalty.

I must've been about 9 years old when my Sunday School teachers cast me as the star of the church's Christmas musical. I was to play a blue, human-sized songbook (yes, that's right, I was a book!) named Psalty in Hope Church's production of Psalty's Christmas Calamity. Anyways, the premise was: Psalty and kids must put on a church musical (yes, it's a musical about a musical). All sorts of bad stuff happens (voice problems, tuning issues, etc.) and they become discouraged, but once they start to put their faith in God, things start to smooth out.

Okay, so maybe the story isn't as interesting as I remember... and singing out of key doesn't compare to the kinds of issues I deal with today... but I still find comfort when those lyrics float up into my consciousness:

We'd like to think we can handle
All our problems on our own
We buckle down, apply the steam
Work our hands down to the bone.

But when we've gone around in circles
And there's no place left to turn
The Lord reminds us quietly
"There's a lesson to be learned"

It's not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit
It's not by might, nor by power, saith the Lord.

We're smack in the middle of summer and with the good weather come athletic equipment and a competetive spirit. Churches across the country are challenging each other to softball, volleyball and basketball games and Bible camps are hosting mini-olympics and three-legged races to bring glory to their teams.

I wonder: what kind of athlete would Jesus be? How would He conduct himself on the court, on the field? Would He want to win or prefer to be last on earth, that He could be first in heaven? He calls us to run in order to win the prize as a metaphor for Christian living, but how does He want us to perform when we are in a literally physical race?

I've been called competetive on more than one occassion. Most of the time, though, the game involves Taboo cards or Scrabble tiles instead of soccer balls and baseball bats. Regardless, if you take the desire to win out of any game-- whether Trivial Pursuit or arm-wrestling-- you also take out the fun. Imagine a race where no one has any desire to win... you'd have a bunch of "runners" sitting on the track.

On the other hand, it seems that the competetive spirit that makes tournaments fun can also breed trash-talking and bickering over close calls. The desire to win sometimes causes rivalries to develop and grudges to form. It may make the victories thrilling, but may also make the losses and even each individual error agonizing.

This issue, like most aspects of Christian life is about walking (or running) that fine line. Allowing ourselves to enjoy a sport, but not letting our prides get the best of us. Desiring to win, but desiring fellowship and mutual edification more. And when the errors are endless and the losses continue to mount, putting things into perspective... there are more important things to life and, after all, it's just a game.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)

Seven for All Mankind...
True Religion...
Citizens of Humanity...
Since when did buying jeans become an exercise in spiritual and social awareness? Is it purely a marketing scheme... to move the consumer to associate their product with a feeling of something deep... something fulfilling? Or are these brands trying to make more than just a fashion statement? The official websites for each of the three brands don't give an explanation to the origins of their names... so we can only speculate. I wonder what the average shopper thinks when they're browsing through the denim section of their local department store. I wonder if anyone has ever tried on a pair True Religions and thought about God, instead of how their butt looks.

You know you do...
And here is where you'd rant and rave about how catchy their tunes are...
how inspriring their lyrics are... and how cute they are. They even have an asian dude... what more can you ask for?