Editor's Note - Jan. 16, 2020

Well, 2019 is in the rear view mirror, and the next decade is underway. This past year has been such a busy one for me. It has been full of some great times, like having a job that I just love, covering events, writing, taking photos and always learning.

This job is really different every week, you never know what is going to happen. I am so thankful for this job, doing something that I love to do.

It has also been a good one in our family, with everyone staying relatively healthy, safe, and most of all, together.

It seems like everyone makes resolutions at the end of the year, something or some goal that they want to accomplish in the next year. I have made many resolutions over the years, everything from making more money, getting a car, a new television or losing weight.

The weight thing is a popular one for a lot of people. They vow to get back in shape, drop some pounds, being able to fit back into that pair of jeans that have spent the majority of the last year in the closet. I didn’t make any resolutions last year, preferring to make a resolution to not make any. But, surprisingly, I did lose about 18 pounds this past year. I didn’t change the way I ate or anything. I did walk quite a bit, walking the dog, sometimes as much as three times a day.

I made a resolution this year to gain some weight. “What?” you say. Why would you want to gain weight unless you were so skinny that you couldn’t function right. Well, in a way I am. No, I am not talking about my 182 pounds, 18 less than I was at last year. I am talking about the 80 or 85 pounds I lost in my spiritual body. See, there were times when I was really fit, maybe not with washboard abs, or muscles like Charles Atlas, but I was at a healthy weight and felt very confident and content.

This past year, I have let my spiritual body go. I love sports so I tend to relate things to different sports. My grandson is a wrestler. There have been times when he has had to drop as much as a few pounds in one day, so he could make weight for a match or tournament. It is grueling and can be dangerous if not watched. I have seen wrestlers drop so much weight that even if they do make weight, they are going to be so weak that they probably wouldn’t be able to go against their opponent effectively. They just don’t have the strength.

Well, that is the way I feel about this year. I dropped a bunch of weight due to starvation and no exercise. If someone wants to be fit, it is said that the best thing is to eat sensibly and exercise, turning that fat into muscle. Well, I have not eaten right, and the exercise has been very rare.

For one thing, I haven’t been using my personal trainer. The Holy Spirit I see as our personal trainer, telling us how to exercise our faith, how to build that muscle so we can fight the enemy. Another no-no is the way I have treated Jesus. He should be my best friend, my soulmate, my true BFF. But, I ashamed to say I have treated Him more like my Uncle Junior I had when I was little. Everyone has one of those uncles that was very well-off, that your family would have over every once in a while, mostly at holidays. Or, of course, you got in a jam. You knew that if you were in a bad bind, that uncle would come to the rescue. Doesn’t really sound like a true friendship. Sad, but true, this was what it was like this past year.

If I could make one resolution this year, it would be to gain about 50 pounds of muscle. Build my spiritual body up enough that I would be useful if He needed me to go wrestle against any opponent.

So, I am going to bulk up on that Daily Bread, drink from that Living Water, and exercise my faith, building that muscle up until I am ready to help those who are stumbling a little, needing that hand-up, as well as ready to go against anyone or anything that comes against me.