How often do you take a day off from your workout routine, only to spend the day saddled with guilt?

It’s that time of year when almost everyone talks about or at least thinks about New Year’s Resolutions so…

…I guess I could start my “talking about” New Year’s Resolutions by answering the question in the title of this post.

I have taken the day off from my workout routine every single day since March of 2020 and I have not been saddled with guilt even once.

I mean, I’ve wondered how I went from going to the gym 3-5 times a week nearly religiously for better than 15 years to nothing in literally the blink of an eye. But guilt? Nah, not really.

Although I am getting too old to work out at the intensity I did a few years ago, I do need to get back to doing something.

But, exercise aside, what I really want to do is this.

Dear Lord,

Throughout the coming year I pray that I will thank you unceasingly for your precious gift of time. I pray that I will fully appreciate each of the over 31 million seconds 2023 has to offer and that I will not squander even one.

I pray, father, that every one of my goals, actions, words, and thoughts this coming year will line up with your perfect word and your divine will.

Lord, show me what you want from me in 2023 so I don’t begin yet another year with a collection of obligatory and insincere resolutions to simply do more of what’s good, less of what’s bad, or to improve myself in some earthly and eternally insignificant way.

Lord, instead of my own resolutions, I pray that you make me a humble servant who intentionally and deliberately seeks your will in everything I do and with every plan I make.

In Jesus name,

Amen!

Word for word, that is exactly the same prayer I have said I would continually pray all year long every year since at least 2015. And, here’s the thing, I haven’t done it and that does cause me quite a bit of guilt.

Do I thank God unceasingly for His precious gift of time? No.

Do I not squander even one second? There is a little bit of hyperbole in that part of the prayer because it would be impossible to not squander even a second. But I squander hours a day sometimes, I know when I am doing it, and I continue to do it anyway. Yeah, I’m busy with work, school, and life but, often, I am not quite as busy as I pretend to be.

Do every one of my goals, actions, words, and thoughts line up with God’s perfect word and will? Some do, of course, but not all, not even close.

Do I make insincere resolutions to do more of what’s good and less of what’s bad? Not counting it as a win, necessarily, but no, not really, because I know I won’t follow through, I never have.

I guess what I am trying to say here is that my Christian faith has consisted, mostly, of believing the right things and having good intentions but falling woefully short when it comes to doing the work. Or, to put it a better way since the Christian faith is not based on works, I have lived my life, to a large extent, like someone who looks at himself in the mirror and immediately walks away and forgets what he looks like (James 1:24).

So my resolutions this year are to get back to the gym and the same prayer I have prayed since 2015. And this time I mean it.

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