Since the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic in March 2021, I haven’t accomplished many of my goals. I wanted to get healthier, but that failed as I sat on my duff at the house eating foods that I shouldn’t have bought via GrubHub. I was lazy when it came to the generalities of life and my ministry. That rut I put myself in was more like a cavern with no way out.
Leading up to the new year, I needed to change. Doctors and friends encouraged me to take control of my life. The cavern I’ve been stuck in, I wanted to get out. In fact, my doctors put me on a path to not Leading up to the new year, I needed to change. Doctors and friends encouraged me to take control of my life. The cavern I’ve been stuck in, I wanted to get out. In fact, my doctors put me on a path to lose weight and refocus my ministry. Part of this direction is to make resolutions and achieve them.
But dear Lord above, I think New Year’s Resolutions are dumb since they are temporary, for the most part. I have yet to meet someone who made a resolution on January 1st, and one year later, they’re still sticking with them. But my doctor said they would focus me on doing good stuff.
So I have a list:
- Going whole-food, plant-based for an entire year without falling off the wagon by eating crappy processed foods. Apparently, this processed food thing screwed me up throughout Covid-year 2021. As I added weight and raised my cholesterol, I felt like garbage. Through the first 7 days of the year, I’ve been good. My weight is down, my clothes fit better, and I feel less blah.
- I need to get back to writing. There was a time, writing was all that I wanted to do. Honestly, I don’t know why I stopped writing consistently. Boredom, laziness, I can’t give an answer. But when I was writing, many things in my life were more focused.
- I’m going to reduce the amount of garbage I produce. Good Lord, in 2021, it felt like I had multiple garbage bags out for collection each week. I’m a single guy and shouldn’t have all that junk. This year, I want to profoundly reduce the amount of stuff I throw out. So I bought new reusable vegetable bags (instead of using those plastic ones in a supermarket), set up my compost in the yard, and stopped buying crap foods from restaurants. Everything is made at the house, and it is all vegetable and bean-based.
- My ministry needs to be reinvigorated. I can’t serve God’s people at St. Matthews in New Milford or Holy Trinity in Garfield if I’m mentally bored. It’s time to wake up the ideas for outreach I filed away and get to serving our communities again. Jesus saves, but if we don’t bring Jesus to people, all of us are wasting our time in church. (OK, I know you’ll think that is wrong, but God wants us to bring His Son to people. If we’re just sitting there singing and listening and not serving, what’s the sense?)
- I’m going to start a church-based podcast. Sometime this year, I want to set up a church-focused podcast dealing with issues we face, both in the church and out, and how we work together to change lives. Once or twice a week, I’ll put it together to talk about issues I care about and what we’re dealing with in New Milford and Garfield, and how we can use our churches to be beacons for those who are lost. I’ve wanted to do this for a while, but I’ve been scared. Yeah, that sounds like a cop-out, but it is the truth.
My doctor is happy that I wrote these down. Now I need to accomplish them. Let me be honest, I’ll have to print these out put them on the fridge. If I don’t see them daily, I’ll never do them.
Pastor Anthony Iovine 