A New Year's Post: Realistic Resolutions

            I keep trying to think about what my New Year resolution should be. I don’t want to do the typical “get in shape” or “learn a new hobby” kind of resolution. Those kinds of resolutions only stick at the beginning of the year. It’s easy to work out or practice a new instrument in January. It’s also easy to just give up and put that gym membership card or hand-me-down guitar away in a place where it’s forgotten until the next year rolls around and the cycle starts all over again. 

I want to do something that will stick all year round, something that I know I can look back at by the end of the year and be proud of doing.

A realistic resolution.

            My resolution for this past year of 2014 was to mature. In 2013, I went through a rebellious stage and my relationship with my mom struggled quite a bit. So when the New Year came, I made a promise to myself that I would do my best to mature throughout the year whenever I had the chance.

            This wasn’t the kind of resolution I could just practice for a month and then give up on. It was more arbitrary. Every time there was a hardship, whether it occurred once a month, weekly, every day, or not, I would find myself encountering chances to practice my maturity.

It wasn’t something I could avoid like the other two common resolutions I mentioned. It’s easy to avoid the gym or put away the guitar to ignore the resolutions, but when I found myself in a situation where I had only the two choices of acting mature or immature, it wasn’t so easy to avoid the promise I had made to myself.

            Looking back on this past year, I can honestly say I think I’ve fulfilled my resolution. Like I said, since the resolution was different, it was more achievable. Being in shape and learning a new hobby are clearly definable. For example, loosing fifty pounds, and being able to run a few miles when before I couldn’t, would qualify as “being in shape.” Also, going from never having picked up a guitar to knowing the basic chords and some simple songs qualify as having “learned a new hobby.”

            But how can one define maturity?

It’s difficult to say the least. “Mature” could mean anything from being able to handle any crisis and avoiding all drama to simply respecting my parents more often. It’s relative. Technically, so can “being in shape” and “learning a new hobby,” but not as much. I think that’s why my resolution stuck. No matter what, even if I slipped up and acted immaturely from time to time, so long as the next chance I opted for maturity, I was still making progress.

            For me, striving for maturity was a more realistic resolution, and I’m glad to say I think I’ve met it.

            As for 2015, I want another resolution like the one I made for 2014. I want something just as arbitrary and just as achievable, something where even the slightest bit of improvement will leave me satisfied by the time 2016 rolls around.

            What I think I’m going to go for is this: “to grow in faith.” I’ve had my fair share of doubts this year and ran into a few bumps in the road on my spiritual journey with God. For next year, I want to make sure I face those bumps with better traction. Like with the “maturity” promise, the chances to work on the “faith” resolution will come at random, but in the end I think I will feel just as fulfilled.

            Maybe “growing in faith” is not a very realistic resolution for others, but it is for me. I invite anyone who wants to join me to, well, join me! I also think my last year’s resolution to mature is one worth trying (I know as teens that can be difficult, but hey, I mean, we won’t be teens forever, might as well practice.). If not, any resolution that seems more realistic is better worth making then something we all know isn’t going to stick (Like I said, who wants to keep lying to themselves about getting in shape? If that treadmill didn’t call for me last year, it won’t call for me this year.)

I think if people could make more realistic resolutions for themselves, they’ll be more inclined to keep them and be happier at the end of the year. And if the resolution is something like, say, “growing in faith,” I think that’s something worth praying to God for help fulfilling. I’m sure God wants our New Year to be just as fruitful as we do.

Happy New Year!

A Christmas Post: A Christian Santa Claus

            With the holidays coming up soon, I find myself seeing a lot of “Keep Christ in Christmas” in churches and on social media. As much as I agree with the statement, I’ve also noticed paranoia with the idea of Santa Claus that I think is over the top. Many Christians don’t like the idea of Santa Claus because they feel it distracts too much from the truth of Christmas, which is Jesus’ birth. Some Christians even take it so far as not giving gifts on Christmas.

            As usual, I think all of this hoopla is ridiculous.

            I’m not saying we shouldn’t remember Jesus. Of course not, Jesus is the whole point! And I’m also not saying this because I love getting presents (I actually prefer giving presents more because I find that more fun). But, as always, I believe there should be a balance.

            The perfect example is this movie I saw last week with Whoopi Goldberg called, Call Me Claus (by the way, spoilers). It’s pretty funny since Whoopi becomes Santa by the end, but the original Santa is who drew my attention. This Santa was different. There was something about him that struck me and by the end of the film I realized what.

            This Santa was a Christian Santa.

            I had never realized it before. The reason why so many Christians don’t like Santa is because he seems to symbolize a kind of non-Christian Christmas. But yet, there I was, watching a movie with a Santa who acknowledged Jesus as the entire reason for Christmas.

            There was one particular scene where this all jumped out to me. Santa was struggling to convince Whoopi’s character, Lucy, that he truly was Santa and that she was his successor. He was beginning to lose hope, so his top elf took him to get some Christmas cheer. The elf brought Santa to a church, where Lucy’s niece was singing her solo to the popular Christmas hymn, “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” which talks about spreading the word of Jesus’ birth.

With his spirits lifted, Santa turns to his elf and says something along the lines of, “This is what Christmas is all about. I can’t give up now.” (Don’t quote me on that, though. It wasn’t like I was taking notes during the movie to get it word for word.)

There was more, though. One of the reasons why Lucy didn’t believe in Santa was because, as a child, she asked Santa to bring her father back from war, but instead her father died. When Santa finally gets the chance to talk to the adult Lucy about that incident, he reminds her that Santa isn’t God and how when these devastating things happen that we can’t explain, we just need to remember that our loved ones continue to live on in our hearts.

It’s a beautiful message and definitely a Christian one. Heck, Santa even tries to sell a Christmas calendar where one would move baby Jesus each day getting closer to Bethlehem. These were just some of the ways in which I saw this Santa as Christian, but there were other instances in the movie (despite how corny it gets at times with the side effects, it really is a nice film worth watching for the holidays).

The whole point is that I think a balance can exist between the whole Santa craze and keeping Christ in Christmas. This movie is proof of that.

I think doing away with the whole Santa Claus idea is sad. Believing in Santa Claus is one of the many ways kids learn to have faith. The idea of being watched to see whether a child has been good or bad during the past year and then rewarded based on the child’s goodness is a way to teach kids about actions having consequences, which leads to a more mature understanding of sins. And Santa’s generosity is symbolic of God’s, which is infinitely greater.

But also, on the other side, I do understand how only focusing on Santa Claus and presents does tend to keep Christ out of Christmas. We still need to be reminded that Christmas is celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, God on Earth born in human form to a young virgin adolescent named Mary. It wasn’t easy for Mary and Joseph, but they did what they could to bring into this world the most amazing gift of all, Jesus. (And I know people dispute whether Jesus’ birth really was in December, but I don’t think that’s important. It’s celebrated in December now and that’s all that matters.)

Like I always say, balance. There can be a balance between the Santa Claus hype and the strict Christ in Christmas attitude. Why can’t Santa be Christian? The Call Me Claus movie proves that he can be. Christmas is a wondrous time of year, but I don’t want to get swept up into the Santa Claus hype and I don’t want to ignore the many traditions associated with Christmas either.

To me, Santa is Christian, and though he might come down my chimney on Christmas Eve and put presents underneath the tree for me, I know he’ll be doing it to celebrate the true gift that doesn’t need to be wrapped or given, Jesus Christ.

(And no, I don’t still believe in Santa Claus, but I think I’ve made my point.)

Have a merry, blessed, Christmas!