The Big Question

“My immediate response is ‘No’ because I’ve never stuck to a New Year’s resolution in my life.

“The thought pattern is always the same though.

‘This year will be different. This year I will get to the gym; get fit and healthy; lose all that excess weight; and keep on top of all my work. This year I will be the head and not the tail.’

“The thing is I really mean it at the time. I can even justify taking time to look after myself. ‘I owe it to myself,’ I say. ‘I need to be healthy to do God’s work. My body is a temple, blah, blah, blah…’

I may have managed to stick to my resolutions for a week, but more like a few days. Yet I still make them in the hope that this year will be different, even although the delusion continues.

“So, why do we all do it? (Notice how I’ve jumped from my responsibility to the collective ‘we’)

“We all have dreams, drive, ambition, and longing, if only from an armchair! But we have to keep believing in ‘one of these days’ because therein lies hope.

“Someone once said that we only fail if we give up. I can honestly say I have never given up.

“I’ve yet to succeed either, but I keep hoping!

“I could say all these New Year resolutions have made a difference in that I keep trying to implement them all year round. Surely I will be successful at some time.

“As for this year, watch this space!”

“I’m not someone who makes New Year’s resolutions.

“I think I’m old enough to realise that such promises made to self are hardly going to change things such as cutting back on my chocolate intake, or stepping up the exercise regime.

“So saying, whilst it may not be as one year changes to another I make any resolution, it can be at certain points in life I will the ‘New Year’ of a different way of living. Then looking back, can say ‘yep, I resolved to do that and it seems to have helped others.’

“The one thing in particular has been to stand as firm as possible in my faith, acknowledging there are times when events can try to hide the presence of God and reassuring those I meet on a daily basis, or even just once, that God is always present.

“That whatever the world throws at us, however much others try to bully us, God is always there.

“Whilst any differences I have made are hardly going to make the headlines on the national news, or even the local papers, I see differences, such as in the confidence of the person who previously was always the quiet withdrawn one, or the person who I had sat with during their dark times, just listening and reassuring them that they are never alone with God in their lives.

“Whilst not a headline difference, for that person it has been a life changer.

“And for that I can praise God.”

“I guess most of my New Year resolutions slip quietly out the door by mid-January. I have had great plans, to cycle more, play more football (or shout less at it on the TV!), try and improve my golf swing but none of them have really stuck. My 11-year-old son Christopher and I began doing ‘Parkrun’ most Saturdays and it has been a lot of fun, although he always beats me!

“The New Year resolution that really made a difference for me, was about six years ago when my wife Donna and I decided to read through the bible using an app from Nicky Gumbel the pioneer of the Alpha course.

“The Bible in one year you can read on all your usual devices, even on paper, (if you can find it!), but the real blessing I have found is that you can listen to it too!

“So Nicky will give an introduction, then Poirot himself, David Suchet, reads the bible to you!

“Nicky then gives commentary and application of God’s word for the day ahead, filled with so much, but possibly the highlight is Pippa Gumbel’s reflection for the day, that needs to be read/heard, it goes from the sublime to the ridiculous, it is awesome!

“We began at the beginning of the year and we have managed to read through the bible quite a few times now, but still there is ‘fresh manna’ every day, I recommend it to everyone, it really is the only New Year’s resolution that has finally stuck!”

“New Year invariably finds me being quite irresolute, however, every August after the quieter months of summer I tend to shake out and refresh my old resolutions for the winter months.

“I have three resolutions which were imparted to me by my piano teacher, the late Kathleen Belford and Marcia Macfarlane, who hailed from Islay and worked as a radiographer in Prince Edward Island.

“Ms Belford advocated careful time management and preparing everything 110%.

“It seems that in performance musicians lose 10% of their efficiency. “Marcia’s mantra was, ‘You must use energy to get energy. Prime the pump of your energy when you need it.’

“One Saturday evening I was not ready for the Sunday services. I was tired and out of time. Following my mentors’ advice, that week I had prepared well and timeously for a Presbytery young people’s conference in Charlottetown and I had presented my talk energetically.

“What to do on Sunday morning? I resolved to use my material in worship and made sure I primed my energy to do it again.

“That Sunday evening I received several telephone calls from parishioners asking me to visit and talk about the ‘sermon’.

“By Monday evening I had made four visits during which three adults and a family of four made or renewed their profession of faith.”

“For about 30 years I was very overweight. At a height of 5 foot 1 inch I weighed 21½ stone.

“In November 2016 I decided that my New Year’s resolution would be to lose weight. I must admit this had been my New Year’s resolution every year for about twenty years, but having two beautiful grandchildren who I couldn’t run around after or walk my dog without getting breathless, something had to change.

“I had a terrible year in 2016 and lost my hearing completely after a bad ear infection affected my right ear. I have been deaf in my leftear since 1991. The hospital in Dumfries did not have the specialist treatment that I needed so I was sent to Crosshouse Hospital. When I saw the ENT surgeon he asked me if I had ever thought about bariatric surgery. I thought, what kind of ear surgery is that?

“I was referred to Professor Ali and he said he would do the surgery but I had to lose a quarter of my body weight. So on January 1 my weight loss journey began.

“I got through the first month, then the second then the third. At Easter I thought I can’t keep this up with all this chocolate before me, but I did it and on August 1 2017 I had a gastric sleeve fitted and, as the saying goes, the rest is history. In the past two years I have lost 10stone 9lbs and have been fitted with a bone anchor hearing aid.

“The highlight of this year was when I went on a plane and didn’t need to ask for an extension for my seat belt, in fact, I had to tighten mine.”