I’m not a big fan of New Year. It fills me with dread for some reason. I think about the New Year the same way I think about my birthday – here we go again, another year. It’s not a good feeling, never really has been. I don’t remember the last time I was excited about a new year. And I’m not that excited this year either. It’s just another day!

New Year’s is apparently one of the oldest holiday traditions – originating before Christ. It started in ancient Babylon around 153 B.C (or so they say). January 1 became the beginning of the New Year in 46 B.C., when Julius Caesar developed a calendar that would more accurately reflect the seasons than previous calendars had. Traditionally, it was thought that one could affect the luck they would have throughout the coming year by what they did or ate on the first day of the year. For that reason, it has become common for folks to celebrate the first few minutes of a brand new year in the company of family and friends.

I guess that’s why in Ghana everyone goes to Church on the 31^st. You never find a seat at Ridge Church on 31^st December. Kinda hypocritical if you ask me. Where were all those people between January and December 24^th. Ah well, who am I to judge? I am one of those hypocritical ones. I attend Church sporadically throughout the year and then make a conscious effort to attend Church on the 31^st. Seriously, who am I kidding? Let me share something totally inappropriate and bordering on TMI (too much information) but who cares? It’s a new year.

December 31^st 2005, I hooked up with someone I really shouldn’t have hooked up with, one of those forbidden fruit blokes. He’d been teasing and baiting me. I called him a toothless bulldog and I guess that hurt his ego. He said I should come over and we’ll go to Church afterwards. What a line huh. Come have sex with me and then we’ll go to Church afterwards. Anyways, so I got dressed in my Sunday best, went over, did it, and then went to Church with him right after. And I sat there in the pew, in my Church clothes and prayed to God to give me a great new year and send a good man my way. God forgive me! It’s the clearest hypocritical December 31^st I remember. Who knows what others do before and after New Year!

Anyways, this past December 31^st, 2009, I didn’t go to Church. Not on purpose. I just didn’t. And something else I didn’t do either is make resolutions. I don’t like New Year resolutions. I usually forget them by March and then it doesn’t matter what they were. I make resolutions like every Monday, so New Year is really no different. Each Monday, I take the opportunity to begin anew, and even that never really works.

According to Wikipedia, A New Year’s resolution is a commitment that an individual makes to a project or the reforming of a habit, often a lifestyle change that is generally interpreted as advantageous.

And here are some popular goals from Wikipedia as well:

• Improve health: lose weight, exercise more, eat better, drink less alcohol, quit smoking
• Improve finances: get out of debt, save money
• Improve career: get a better job
• Improve education: improve grades, get a better education, learn something new (such as a foreign language or music)
• Improve self: become more organized, reduce stress, be less grumpy, manage time, be more independent
• Take a trip
• Volunteer to help others

All solid resolutions, however, according to the same Wiki article, while 52% of participants in a recent research were confident of success with their goals, only 12% actually achieved their goals. A dismal number.

Another reason why I am not a fan of New Year’s resolutions is because of the cliché ones people come up with.

• Oprah Winfrey: Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right (I think each day should be an opportunity to get it right. You always have tomorrow to look forward to.)
• Sydney Smith: Resolve to make at least one person happy every day, and then in ten years you may have made three thousand, six hundred and fifty persons happy, or brightened a small town by your contribution to the fund of general enjoyment (Geez, I have to resolve to do that? Seriously? Does anyone actually visualize that, in ten years, I want to make 3,650 people happy?)
• G. K. Chesterton: The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul (Fantastic. A new soul every year. Sounds like fun.)
• Anais Nin: I made no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and molding my life, is too much of a daily event for me (I don’ know who Anais Nin is but I like this one. I am open to change, to adapting plans, to re-evaluating progress, it’s a daily event. I don’t wait for New Year to do that.
• Dear Lord, So far this year I’ve done well. I haven’t gossiped, I haven’t lost my temper, I haven’t been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or overindulgent. I’m very thankful for that.  But in a few minutes, Lord, I’m going to get out of bed, and from then on I’m probably going to need a lot more help.  (I love this one. Each time we get out of bed, we do need help to make it through. Making resolutions on January 1^st shouldn’t end there.)

In the end, I am grateful for this year mainly for one thing: LIFE. I am alive. My mother, father, brothers, all alive. My close family and friends, all alive. Some people can’t say the same. That’s sad. So despite my obvious cynicism, I am eternally grateful for my life and the life of my family and friends. It’s not resolutions that keep us alive, it is God grace.

So, as you begin or revise your resolutions, let me help you out with the 1^st and 2^nd ones.

• Always remember to thank God for your life.
• Buy a copy of CIRCLES ASAP!