YOU SAY YA WANT A RESOLUTION REVOLUTION

Happy Moo Year to all of you Chewers of the Cud. How is your new year so far? Have you already fallen off the wagon like Otis Campbell on a weekend drunk. Why can't Barney just leave you and your cow alone? It's your life...and you're gonna live it. You have heard of the proverbial "monkey on your back".. but what about the Otis on your back. Check out that Ruminator's expression as Otis gets reprimanded once more for another weekend of yielding to temptation and slip back into his old ways.

Each New Year we make a RESOLUTION...where we RESOLVE to do better...to change...to quit something and start something...out with the old...in with the new. We make
promises...declarations... confessions to ourselves...others.. God...our dog...the mirror...anyone who will listen in hopes that by getting it out there in the open... we will tend to keep our word to someone. As soon as we slip, stumble, fall, fail, go off the deep end, fall off the wagon...we immediately come under the CLOUD OF CONDEMNATION...as everyone from our husbands, wives, circle of friends, the devil and even the image of ourselves in the mirror...screams out...."NOTHING HAS CHANGED"!!!!!! What's a man/woman to do?

RESOLUTION: (1) the act or process of resolving something or breaking it up into its constituent part or elements (2) a resolving or determining; deciding, the thing determined upon; decision as to future action; resolve (3) A resolute quality of mind (4) a formal statement of opinion or determination adopted by an assembly or other formal group. (5) a solving, as of a puzzle, or answering, as a question; solution.

RESOLVE: (1) to break up into separate, constituent elements or parts; analyze (2) to change or transform (3) to cause a person to decide ormake up his mind (4) to reach as a decision on or intention, determine how to go

It seems that this thing called a RESOLUTION...where we RESOLVE to do something is merely the BEGINNING of what you have analyzed and determined what you want to do or change in your life. When you RESOLVE to quit something...ie. smoking...and you start off great guns by throwing you tobacco stash away...but within 48 hours you are going back to the store...or into your secret stash...and smoke away...the tendency is to say that we have BROKEN OUR RESOLUTION...so we might as well...GIVE UP TOTALLY. Not so! The resolution is the verbalization of the analysis of what we want or need to change in our lives. The next step to accomplish that GOAL...is what is known as THE PROCESS. There is: (1) the analysis (2) the statement of desired goal
(3) the declaration of the LONG TERM GOAL (based upon our resolution and analysis) (4) the SHORT TERM GOALS (the steps that you need to get to the LONG TERM GOAL...aka DESIRED RESULT.

What we usually fail at is NOT our New Years Resolutions....but the SHORT TERM GOALS. This is not the end of the world...or for that matter THE END OF OUR RESOLUTIONS. We need a RESOLUTION REVOLUTION

THE SPEECH PATHOLOGIST IN ME

In Speech Pathology...when I am working with a patient and I (1) evaluate the patient (2) analyze the evaluation (3) Set the LONG TERM GOALS (4) Determine a series of SHORT TERM GOALS, I begin therapy. I always underline and reinforce with the patient and their family members that we are beginning a journey...and that there will be times of great joy as we reach certain goals...and there will be times of discouragement when those goals are not met....BUT that does not mean that if we blow it in one area of a short term goal...that we might as well give up and quit therapy. I always ask them..."Do you know how to EAT AN ELEPHANT?" Usually, the looked at me with a question in their eyes and answers NO...HOW DO YOU EAT AN ELEPHANT? The answer is ONE BITE AT A TIME. If you try to eat the entire elephant (long term goal or desire result of a resolution)...you will get discouraged and overwhelmed at the enormity of the task. That's why we make short term, obtainable goals...and work our way to the LONG TERM GOAL... the DESIRED RESULT...THE PRIZE...THE NEW YEARS RESOLUTION.

The key word is NEW YEARS resolution...not ONE MONTH resolution. If you fall of the horse...and light up a stogie...eat another entire chocolate cream pie...get behind in the reading of your ONE YEAR BIBLE...lose your temper (again)...SO WHAT? As one of my favorite Bible teachers... Jack Hayford states..."DEAL WITH IT AND BE DONE WITH IT." Stop whining...stop feeling sorry for yourself...stop assuming that just because you lost a battle...that you lost the war...cancel the PITY PARTY...cancel that call to 911 for your waaaaambulance and get back on the horse...and PROCEED. As Randy Matthews sings about on his Eyes To The Sky album..."forget the mistakes...LEARN THE LESSONS." Go back to the POINT OF BREAKDOWN in the process....AND start again. How long to we do this? As long as it takes. One hour...one day...one month...one year... infinity. DON'T GIVE UP!! You will either consider it an EXERCISE IN FUTILITY...or a STRENGTHENING EXERCISE.

The RESOLUTION...the analysis the LONG TERM GOAL has not changed...you simply make an adjustment at the short term goal level....AND CONTINUE ON...because you have NOT FAILED. The only failure is when you QUIT.


I gave up on Chrisitanity..or I gave upon my participation in Christianity...in 1972. I got SAVED...gave my life to the Lord...made DECLARATION of the resolution...the analysis of my need for a Saviour in 1970. I made bold statements...made bold decisions, and made bold actions to back up my bold RESOLUTION...and did pretty good for two years. I dropped out of that hip and happening garage band...THE BLIND DISTORTION...got rid of many of the old habits and trappings of my old life...went away to an Independent Baptist Bible College in Chattanooga Tennessee to get my Bachelors of Bible and become an evangelist. Within 2 years I was smoking more dope...sniffing various chemicals...doing more ungodly things than before I was a Christian. I had FAILED in what I declared and tried to live out. For two years...my mind set was..."I failed...I might as well go back to my OLD WAYS...and not try to live the NEW WAY." It was like a New Years Resolution on Steroids....when you fail and fall...you fail and fall hard...and there will always be someone there with a safety net...to pull out from under you and point the finger of accusation of how you failed.

NOTE: It makes people feel good about themselves when you fail...because now they have an excuse for why they failed. With the emphasis on your derailed resolution...they can blame failure on the fact that nobody can keep a resolution. Light one up and cut me another piece of pie.

The little man praying is the Reverend Will B. Dunn...one of the characters in my favorite cartoon...KUDZU. It represents to me...the ways that I personally get back on the horse after falling off of my RESOLUTION RIDE. I plan to approach my resolutions the same way I approach my sins. The Christian Rock group Petra...has an album called THIS MEANS WAR. One of the songs is GET ON YOUR KNEES AND FIGHT LIKE A MAN. This speaks of the way that you win the RESOLUTION REVOLUTION...prayer.

STATEMENT OF THE STANDARD

"And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and IN HIM there is no darkness at all." (I John 1:5)

STATMENT OF THE PROBLEM

"If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness...we lie and do not practice the truth." (I John 1:6)

STATEMENT OF THE SOLUTION

"BUT..if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the BLOOD OF JESUS...HIS SON... CLEANSES US FROM ALL SIN." (I John 1:7)

STATEMENT OF RATIONALIZATION OF OUR SINS

"If we say that WE HAVE NO SIN...we are DECEIVING ourselves...and the truth is not in us." (I John 1:8)

STATEMENT OF THE SOLUTION (Part 2)

"If we CONFESS (say the same thing God says about the light revealed sin) our sins...HE (not me...not we)...is faithful and righteous to FORGIVE us our sins...and to CLEANSE us from all unrighteousness."
(I John 1:9)

Well...this is Ol' (not old) Ruminatin' Rod...wishing all of you a Happy MOO Year. My prayer for you is Joshua 1:8 and Proverbs 3:1-10...and that you will moo and chew on the Word of God...you will ruminate and hawgaw...and that the cause and effect that you will:

1. MAKE YOUR WAY PROSPEROUS: Have enough to met your needs and desires...with an overflow to met the needs of others.

2. THEN YOU WILL HAVE GOOD SUCCESS: You will accomplish the purposes of God in your life and that whatever you put you hand to...you will accomplish as you walk in the favor of God and of man.

Love and Moo Year Kisses
Rodney "Resolution Revolution Man" Boyd