We’ve been out traveling the last week or so – Christmas with one branch of the family in Memphis, Tennessee, and then a few days after Christmas with the Florida panhandle bunch. What wonderful times in both places! Yesterday was our last leg home – up I-65 north of Nashville through Kentucky and Indiana and on to a snowy welcome in Auburn.

The day, New Year’s Day, began with a reading from Psalm 103, and I pondered the words of its first two verses as we headed towards Bowling Green and Louisville, passing Mammoth Cave and the Jim Beam distillery:

Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.

I am not much of a New Year’s resolutions person, but it seems that remembering God’s benefits to us might be a good thing for any year. His benefits, not my list of happy memories or my collection of things accumulated. Benefits – life, family, friends, purpose, the call to discipleship. Benefits – enjoying and glorifying him forever. 2026: forget not all his benefits.

As we drove along, the Kentucky Highway Department used its electronic signs to wish us happy new year with its own resolution for 2026. “New Year. Same Goal. No Deaths,” the signs flashed their message to us as we passed under them. But if goals are meant to be achievable, resolutions keepable, the Kentucky Highway Department is bound to be disappointed in the new year. We motorists are sinners, every one, and I am pretty sure I saw some candidates for highway fatalities whiz by at 90 MPH. Last year, Kentucky averaged about two highway deaths a day. They’re not going to meet their goal of no deaths in the new year.

About the time we crossed the Ohio River into Indiana, my thoughts crossed into how a Christian might best resolve to live out his or her discipleship in a world where we are tempted to drive too fast or follow too closely. Kentucky Highway Department resolutions won’t work. If I resolve to think no selfish thoughts, utter no unkind words, cast no covetous glances, I will fail. Sanctification is not about perfection, it is about taking off the old and putting on the new, as the Apostle Paul says.

The Christian’s New Year’s resolutions are filled with “more” and “less,” not “always” and “never.” More kindness and less selfishness by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, not always kind and never selfish.

As I thought about Psalm 103 and the New Year’s resolution of the Kentucky Highway Department, the words of an old prayer came to mind (yes, via Godspell). In the Thirteenth Century, Richard of Chichester wrote,

Thanks be to Thee, my Lord Jesus Christ
For all the benefits Thou hast given me,
For all the pains and insults Thou hast borne for me.
O most merciful Redeemer, friend and brother,
May I know Thee more clearly,
Love Thee more dearly,
Follow Thee more nearly.

A resolution for 2026? To know him more clearly, love him more dearly, follow him more nearly. And to forget not all his benefits.

Happy New Year!