"So This Is the New Year...and I Don't Feel Any Different"

The beginning of the year is always a time for introspection. It's also a time to see if those goals I posted at the beginning of the last year came to anything. Here were last year's goals:

• Write more. Well, I don't think I wrote the 52 pieces I was hoping for, and I don't have much excuse for that. I did write several book reviews, a chapter for a book, some pieces for inclusion in the upcoming Bible quizzing issue of Reflections, and a few other things, but I don't think it's anywhere near 52. This blog was another way to facilitate my reaching this goal, since Xanga was beginning to annoy me. All in all, I'm moderately happy with the way this goal turned out.
• Read through the Bible in a year. The president of the company I work for challenged all of us employees to read through the Bible in 2010, and I took up the challenge, reading through The One Year Chronological Bible, mostly in the NLT. (Toward the end of the year, I switched to the HCSB because they put out a free version for my Nook, which was quite easy on the eyes.) How do I feel about this? It benefited me greatly, mostly establishing a routine for reading through the Bible, but I have to admit, at times it felt like a chore. I read some days just so I didn't fall behind, and I read it faster than I should have, not allowing the words to sink in. I got more out of Paul's epistles this way (you can catch the sense of his arguments much better if you read them at a gallop), but some other portions of Scripture lost their potency. I still plan on maintaining a regular diet of Bible reading, but I'm not sure these one-year plans are for me.

My blogging through Orthodoxy was a failure, mostly because no one was commenting, so I lost the exterior motivation. (What can I say? Blogging is somewhat narcissistic. Praise me!) I didn't finish blogging about Job, but I feel like coming back to that is still viable, if not probable. My secret goal in reading last year was to get through 100 books. I was on pace through a majority of the year, but my efforts became hamstrung in November (I blame apathy), and I didn't quite make it. Which is disappointing, because 2010 wasn't a great year for reading for me. There are very few books I read in 2010 that I think I will want to read again.

I haven't decided yet if I will resolve to do anything this year. The reason for this is not that I have nothing to improve, but that there is too much. I'm kicking some ideas around, but before I "resolve" anything, I want to make sure it can be accomplished. I have too many half-finished towers as it is.

Stay tuned for resolutions and the annual best of 2010 list, coming soon.