Here we go again.  This time every year we come full circle in a calendicular (did I just make that up?) way to the point in time where we sweep out the previous old year and usher in the pristine new one.  This comes with the tradition of making resolutions that will certainly make the New Year more enticing.  The usual lifetime of these resolutions is about the same time it takes Dale Gordon Jr to do a lap around Talladega.  We usually start with the ‘The Big One’ of getting in shape and eating less. I blew this one out of the water on January 1st when I personally tried to put Buffalo Wild Wings out of business by eating my body weight in spicy garlic wings (my favorite!).  Just add a little blue cheese and you lose track of how many of those little suckers you have eaten!  Since getting my knee scoped in January,  I have actually been doing a pretty good job of getting to the gym.  My wife jokingly refers to, “The Ladies #2,” (the, “Ladies #1″ being my classical guitar trio, another blog…) in my spinning class.  I usually am the only guy in the class, except for the time I took John and Luke to a 0530 (that’s early for you civilians and non-hospital peeps) which was actually pretty fun, because I wasn’t the only guy walking out looking like I tried to balance my derriere on a hatchet head for an hour.  Lest you think that an hour of spinning class is anything but hard, I defy you to show up and do a class with me.  I must admit, yesterday I went to work out and ended up reading a Mens Best Life Magazine while watching football on ESPN in the lounge, but I guess I technically did go to the gym.  This has made me reflect on the resolutions I made concerning God.  Like most, I made resolutions at the beginning of last year, I made resolutions to pray more, read more, and serve more.  I am sure most of you kept yours, but I fell short of what I had hoped to attain for the last year.  I blame the my own lackadaisical attitude and the busyness of life that kept me from fulfilling completing my resolutions.  One concept I have been giving a lot of thought to recently is what really keeps me from a closer walk with God?  One blaring truth that I keep coming back to over and over is that as a Christians, I have become tolerant of, numb so to speak, of the little sins in my life.

The following is taken from a great devotional called Morning and Evening by Charles Haddon Spurgeon:

“Sin . . . exceeding sinful.” — Romans 7:13

Beware of light thoughts of sin. At the time of conversion, the conscience is so tender, that we are afraid of the slightest sin. Young converts have a holy timidity, a godly fear lest they should offend against God. But alas! very soon the fine bloom upon these first ripe fruits is removed by the rough handling of the surrounding world: the sensitive plant of young piety turns into a willow in after life, too pliant, too easily yielding. It is sadly true, that even a Christian may grow by degrees so callous, that the sin which once startled him does not alarm him in the least. By degrees men get familiar with sin. The ear in which the cannon has been booming will not notice slight sounds. At first a little sin startles us; but soon we say, “Is it not a little one?” Then there comes another, larger, and then another, until by degrees we begin to regard sin as but a little ill; and then follows an unholy presumption: “We have not fallen into open sin. True, we tripped a little, but we stood upright in the main. We may have uttered one unholy word, but as for the most of our conversation, it has been consistent.” So we palliate sin; we throw a cloak over it; we call it by dainty names. Christian, beware how thou thinkest lightly of sin. Take heed lest thou fall by little and little. Sin, a little thing? Is it not a poison? Who knows its deadliness? Sin, a little thing? Do not the little foxes spoil the grapes? Doth not the tiny coral insect build a rock which wrecks a navy? Do not little strokes fell lofty oaks? Will not continual droppings wear away stones? Sin, a little thing? It girded the Redeemer’s head with thorns, and pierced His heart! It made Him suffer anguish, bitterness, and woe. Could you weigh the least sin in the scales of eternity, you would fly from it as from a serpent, and abhor the least appearance of evil. Look upon all sin as that which crucified the Saviour, and you will see it to be “exceeding sinful.”

Why is it ok to go to some of the movies I do?  I watched a movie with my daughter about a lady whose daughter was getting married, but the mom had slept with 3 different guys and didn’t know who the father was really, but the movie had some catchy songs (if you call ABBA catchy) so it was ok?  Why do I tell my son that some of the songs on Guitar Hero are inappropriate, yet plug in the iPod and crank up Ozzy or the Eagles or are they ok?  Do as I say, not as I do?  Have I become numb to the to the little things in my life?  Is this why I keep falling into some of the same old behaviours that I know are wrong, yet do them anyway?  Is this why some people find following Christ so bizzare, because they hear what I say and then see something totally different from the way I act?  I don’t know, but I  hope to get closer to an answer this year because I’m tired of the same old, same old and it truly is the little things in life.