It’s Not a New Year’s Resolution

But I have settled on two drums to bang in 2026

It started with a family funeral, a winding fall drive through the Ozarks. A farewell to a long-lived believer.

I didn’t make my usual post that week. Was tired from the drive, from sleeping in a hotel room, from shepherding little kids through all a memorial gathering entails.

I didn’t want to force writing out at that time. A one-week pause seemed wise. Surely, I’d quickly resume my usual routine, right?

After all, I already had a couple new essays on the back burner. One was even finished. It was thoroughly scriptural. I still agree with every word of it. It also bluntly addressed things some well-known political figures had, at the time, recently said.

I shared it with my wife. “Why don’t you hold off on that one and pray about it?”

I did.

The pause continued. In early December I realized I had eight drafts of different posts sitting unpublished, which is about eight more than I usually allow to pile up.

Although the pause was unplanned at the outset, I started to sense the Lord had a purpose for it.

I prayed and asked if I should continue putting time into writing at all. My life is full. Family, work, kids. Life is overflowing, really. In the best possible way.

And there are a lot of words on the internet. In particular, there’s far more than enough Christian writing. I say that not out of cynicism, and certainly not to slight any faithful wordsmiths. I just think it’s a matter-of-fact. A monk dedicated to consuming Christian content for a lifetime would die before even taking in all that will be published today.

Those of us who write, if we have even a splash of humility, realize that we don’t need to be writing. At least not for anyone else’s sake.

Soon I found I didn’t have a strong urge to get back to sharing my writing. A year ago, or even six months ago, that probably wouldn’t have been the case. And I think this change has been healthy for me.

Yet, at the same time, two themes kept coming back to mind. I had two ideas I couldn’t shake. They’re things I’ve written about before. In fact, my earliest handful of posts includes both. But the undergrowth of other ideas I found myself chasing eventually crowded those two themes out.

So my intention, in the coming year, is to get back to what I originally wanted to say. And I think these ideas are even more vital now.

So enough, already. What are they?

First, I want to urge people to live and pray in the Word of God. Now that sounds like wonderfully generic Christian jargon, doesn’t it?

Here’s how Psalm 1 puts it:

Blessed is the man. . .[whose] delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night:

It’s a simple sentiment, but within it two seeds of potential confusion are already sewn. First, a modern-day Christian hearing the word “law” will immediately think of verses like Galatians 3:2–3:

I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?

We hear “law” and think “bad,” don’t we? Isn’t the Law’s sole purpose to remind us of our sinfulness and need for God’s grace? Keep in mind that “law” in Psalm 1 refers broadly to Scripture. Jesus uses the word in this sense when He speaks of “the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:40). And as it turns out, the kind of meditation that Psalm 1 is urging is one of the most effective ways to remind ourselves of both God’s holiness and His grace.

But the word “meditation” is, itself, another stumbling block. Most people today associate it with Buddhist or New Age religion. But to an ancient Israelite, it simply meant to ponder or to murmur. You speak the Word of God to yourself and you reflect on it. As with many psalms, you may be able to simply pray it word-for-word. It might communicate to God what’s already on your heart and mind. Or you might use it as a springboard for your own spontaneous prayer.

This is what I mean by living and praying in the Word of God. And when we consider that Psalm 1 urges us to do this day and night, each of us discovers we’ve fallen plenty short of God’s design for our lives. (There’s that sense of law again!) Yes of course, we then lean into the Lord and welcome His grace. And then, by His grace, we lean into the Word some more.

The trouble is that this leads us smack into another M-word. While “meditation” may raise eyebrows, “memorization” simply causes people to sprint in the other direction. Yet it’s very hard to sustain meditation on Scripture unless you know a fair bit of God’s Word by heart.

Here, again, the Psalms serve as the key to the lock. They were originally meant to be sung. And as anyone who’s ever had an unwanted song stuck in their head knows, music enables memorization (whether or not we want it to).

Alas, we’ve arrived at another obstacle. Many people don’t care to sing. Men, in particular, often find it uncomfortable. This, of course, is a quirk of our historical moment. David and Solomon, suffice it to say, weren’t hesitant to belt out a tune. But it is one of many real obstacles to widespread singing of the Psalms and other Scripture.

And those are the very obstacles I hope to take on in the coming year with my writing. I’m reading Scott Aniol’s Musing on God’s Music. I’m trying to understand the historical reasons why the singing of Scripture has waned. I’m looking for clues as to how people might find enjoyment in it again.

I have far more questions than answers. But I’m curious. And I’m eager to share what I’m finding.

I also have a little one up and in my lap at this point, so I’m going to wrap this up for now. I realize I haven’t even mentioned the second big theme that I want to re-focus my writing on.

But that’s probably worthy of another post anyway. And who’s to say, now that I’ve ripped off the bandage and started writing again, maybe I can make a habit of this again.

Happy New Year and God bless!