I’m not usually one for New Year’s Resolutions. Most of the resolutions I have made over the years have been broken far too quickly, and I never wanted to fall into the trap of making the same empty promises year after year. However, this January clearly marks a new chapter in my life. I am a computer science professor, but I was pulled into administration nine years ago. I found my department chair position much more satisfying and rewarding than I expected, but also far more stressful and draining than teaching and research.  I stepped down from my position at the end of June and have been on leave since then, working on getting my research program back up and running as well as preparing to return to the class room on a full time basis.

Now, the time has come for my old and new life to begin again. Old because I’m going back to the job I did and loved for well over a decade. New because other circumstances have changed–children grown and moved away, new courses and changed course content, and a research field that looks nothing like it did a decade ago. As I look ahead, I am both thrilled and terrified; thrilled because I am glad to be out of the administrative role and its stresses, and because I loved my job in 2010; terrified because I am rusty, and because I want to love my job again.

Given these circumstances, I thought this might be a good year to actually make some resolutions and share them with you in place of my usual devotional content. So, here they are:

Care the Right Amount about My Job

A faculty position can take over your life, especially if you are a responsible person who cares about your students. I have a tendency to give my students more of my time and energy than I probably should. I can also occasionally get very absorbed into a research problem. As a mother of children at home, I worked to prevent my job from completely taking over my life, knowing that my family needed my time, though I’m sure my sons would tell you that I was not as successful as perhaps I should have been.

Looking ahead, I certainly don’t want to become one of those professors who go through the motions. I do care about my students and enjoy my research, but, more importantly, we are commanded to take our work seriously, whatever it is. “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:23-24 ESV). We’re also encouraged to enjoy it. “And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 8:15 ESV).

At the same time, I don’t want to lose track of other things that matter. The story of Mary and Martha reminds us that Jesus considers time spent with him to be important, more so than our daily work. My children no longer live here, but I still have a husband and friends. So my first resolution is to work hard, find joy in my work, and keep my work from consuming my life.

Spend Time in the Word

For many years, I have managed to keep a pretty consistent Bible reading and prayer time in the mornings, but I have only recently become serious about Scripture memorization and meditation. I also feel a need to pick up more serious Bible study than I have been engaged in recently. With the return to teaching, my daily schedule will become more erratic.

So my second resolution is to continue to reserve daily time for Scripture memory and to carve out at least an hour per week for serious Bible study in addition to my usual reading and prayer time.

Focus on Relationships

I am an introvert. In general, I do not need people when I get home from work. I love to read. I enjoy video games. I love to write. I can entertain myself with no problem at all, and I desperately need some of that time to be alone and recover the energy it costs me to engage with others.

But God doesn’t intend that even his introverts walk through life alone. We are commanded to fellowship. We are commanded to be witnesses. We cannot have good fellowship without spending time with other Christ followers. We cannot be effective witnesses without spending time with non-believers.

With the renewed scheduling flexibility of my faculty position, I have determined that I need to renew my focus on spending time with people and improving my relationships..

So my third resolution is to make sure I take time every week to spend with people other than students and to seek to develop at least one more good Christian friend and at least one friend that I can share Christ with.

 

Those are my resolutions for 2020. I encourage you to comment below about what God is leading you to commit to for the coming year.

 

Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash