What a year for a new year

I've been thinking about resolutions. When I would ask customers at the coffee shop if they had any, almost all responded by saying "oh no, I've given up making any." I think frozen by the possibility by failure we do not make resolutions any more. My beat up Webster defines resolution as "1, the act or result of resolving something. 2. the thing determined upon; decision as to future action 3. a reolute quality of mind. 4. a formal statement of opinion or determination by an assembly."
I can't help but link 'resolution' with 'resolve' (a word that now could by included in the many 'bushisms,' but regardless an important word to pick apart). resolve is defined as "1. to break up into seperate parts; analyze. 2. to reach as a decision; determine. 3. to solve (a problem) 4. to decide by vote."

The root of both these words is "solu" which means to loosen. How is making a resolution or resolving something loosening? I would think that in some way, when we make resolutions it is perhaps to be more disciplined. "I'm going to quit smoking. I'm going to work out more. I'm going to make a budget." Wouldn't it be tightening up behaviors that have had only loose dominion in our lives? When I think of the word "loosen" immediately i think of an image of sand. For some reason sand i see as loose, free flowing, not attached to anything. Yet it's movement is dictaed not by it's own accord but to the current, the natural flow of the earth, the water. Sand is free yet it's movements are not it's own.

But yet resloution and discipline seem to go together. Of course Discipline and Disciple also share the same root. To be a disciple is to obey Christ.

I am always moved by John 15, when Jesus teaches about the vine and the branches.

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word i have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me."

This excerpt is taken from this website: http://www.mastergardenproducts.com/gardenerscorner/a_guide_to_pruning.htm

"What is Pruning?

Pruning is a regular part of plant maintenance involving the selective removal of specific plant parts. Although shoots and branches are the main targets for removal, roots, flower buds, fruits and seed pods may also be pruned.

Pruning wounds plants, but plants respond differently to wounding than do animals. In plants, damaged areas are covered by callus tissue to close wounds. Simply put: animal wounds heal, plant wounds seal.

Another response to pruning occurs inside plants. around wounded areas, walling off or compartmentalizing the wounds. Compartmentalization limits any decay that results from wounding, or from the natural death of branches. Use pruning techniques that minimize plant wounding and speed wound closure.

Current pruning recommendations advise against pruning branches flush to the trunk. Flush cutting is harmful in several ways: it damages bark as pruning tools rub against the trunk, it removes the branch collar , and goes behind the branch bark ridge."

Perhaps by making resloutions to be more disciplined we should have these resolutions be a way of allowing God to prune certain things that have control over our lives, perhaps by giving up certain things so that God can heal them and create new life. By allowing God to loosen dead branches we can then be disciplined by allowing new growth to occur. OR going back to the example of sand, sand comes from giant rocks, parts of huge boulders that gradually the sea erodes away. But only until the sand is free from it's former 'home.' can the sea move it to a totally different place. But the sand must 'resolve' to detach, let go of the rock to which it is clinging.

There are many branches that need pruning in my life. Thoughts grow in my mind yet I have a tendancy to not follow them through, as God wants to take me to a deeper understanding i usually give up, go to sleep, turn on the TV, listen to music. So my resolution is this, to be disciplined about writing, reading, thinking, praying. Hence the creation of this blog. I'm not sure if any will read it, but i guess it doesn't really matter. It is about being disciplined and allowing God to loosen these thoughts, to allow him to prune branches that i may not know are not allowing me to grow. By pruning God will wound me and it will hurt, this is what the true calling to the Cristian life, to let God wound us and heal us and therefore creating a further depedence on Him.