Despite my intention to blog nightly, it's not been happening, but I'm not going to let it bother me. This goes for my various other resolutions. A key to actually making progress in life, I think I am learning after about sixty jillion tries, is to not let it get you down when you're less than perfect, or when legitimate things come up that throw a wrench in your plans.

Take last night, for instance. Couldn't blog since there was a need, a desire, to go for a lovely stroll with my lovely wife along the waterfront. Other nights in the past week, other stuff came up, such as, being so utterly exhausted by the heat or by extremely busy days at work, that the new priority became "get to bed early!"

I won't list how I'm doing with my whole "goals package" these days but I will say that I'm probably, on average, getting a passing grade. I've been doin' the exercises thrice weekly (yeah, that's another goal) but my dieting "needs improvement." Coffee reduction has been slow and steady so that today I was down to...three and a half cups (from an original five cups). I continue to read my spiritual book in the morning with my breakfast and, generally, to "get something out of it," as we used to say.

Well there, I pretty well gave a progress report after all...

Here's another factor in all this: when we are trying to make change, I mean to change really pesky habits, large and small, it takes a tremendous amount of energy. No pain, no gain. If I just drift with the current, eat what I want, skip the exercise, pray when I jolly well feel like it, well, in one sense I feel better but in another I feel worse. That's basically a denial approach--stuffing down the disappointment and lying to myself that I'll change next week, but not now, I'm too tired, or depressed, or busy, or what-have-you.

What I'm saying is that one of the reasons for my exhaustion, I'm quite sure, is that I've been bucking the "system," meaning, my own deeply ingrained habits.

So how can I carry on the fight and make better progress, not feeling so tired out by it? Well one thing that occurs to me is that, like most North American Christians, I've lost sight of what a true "Sabbath" rest is supposed to mean. When I was growing up we used to "keep the Sabbath" in our family by, on Sundays, not playing any games except Bible games, not watching TV, and not working--except "works of necessity and mercy." (It was okay to fix dinner, do the dishes, and stop to help an old lady change her tire. We also were allowed to write letters and go for walks.) Over the years the strictness of our observance waned so that eventually we started going out to eat, reading newspapers, or watching non-religious TV on Sundays.

By now, things have gotten to the point (in my life, anyhow), that Sundays (except for that church thing, when I go) essentially are no different from any other day of the week. I still work--doing chores, errands, etc.--and my recreation time is precisely of the same sort as the rest of the week as well. It's my observation that that is essentially how the vast majority of Christians in the West today are living as well. The result is we're all as exhausted as all get-out.

What I am thinking is that, as an experiment, I would like to reintroduce into my life the practice of keeping the Sabbath. But instead of it being something legalistic, and seeing Sunday as being more holy than other days (I could as easily make it Wednesday) nevertheless I will seek to follow the biblical principle of resting one day in seven. (God rested after creating the world in six days, etc.) I will make my Sundays (and I think I'm feeling a new resolution coming on) to be a day that will best get me prepared to serve God for the following six days. Ordinarily this will mean I will need to go somewhere to worship, hear the Word, and hopefully connect with other Christians. It also will mean that I will have made sure I got all the unnecessary chores and errands done already. Furthermore it will mean that I will take the time to read scripture or Christian books and to meditate and pray over them, but without feeling rushed.

All of this is not rocket science. Christians of previous generations likely would say, "Well duh. Do ya think that might help?" The problem is that those Christians of the past tended to take a good idea and make a law out of it. In the end it became positively unhelpful. Sundays as a child, for me, while restful in one sense, also seemed extremely boring.

My Sunday game plan, in keeping with the idea of it being a means of preparing for living for God for the next six days, and unlike the last generation's idea of Sabbath keeping, would include times for recreation and possibly watching a good movie. Or it might mean taking a nap, or doing e-mail--or blogging! But what I'd want to keep in mind is that the purpose of the day ought not be compromised. It ought to provide rest in the deepest sense of the word--resting my body and my spirit. Essentially it's what Christians (when being truest to their identities in Christ) would hope a good vacation would accomplish. Too often we make the mistake on our vacations of keeping the pace so frenetic that we come back needing a vacation from our vacation. We never calm down enough to hear the voice of God, or just rest and thank God for the beauty of the day, or what have you.

Well, I see I've really gone off on a tangent here. Since I'm in the library, my one-hour session is about to end, so I'm going to close here. It's a great way to keep myself from going on, and on, and on, AND on...