Rector’s Blog, Giving Up - The Rev. Philip DeVaul

One of the best things about New Year's resolutions is when you give up on them. I don't mean when you miss a day, or start to slack: I mean when you just throw in the towel and say, ok this isn't happening in 2023. 2024 will be my year.I am ready to do that today. You might remember in a previous blog I said that I was not going to try to be a better person this year. New Year Same Me, I said. That was essentially my New Year's resolution: to be myself and not try to get better. But I keep wanting to try to be a better person anyway. I keep slacking and accidentally wanting to be less terrible. Friends, how do I win the fight against self-improvement? I think I'm throwing in the towel. I think I want to be better, whether I like it or not. Each year, on or around Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I re-read King's Letter from Birmingham Jail. This is a letter he wrote while incarcerated for marching against racial segregation in Alabama in 1963. I read to be inspired and challenged of course - but also to be convicted. Let me explain.