We’ve taken that big leap into a new calendar year, hopping onto fresh pages that beckon us into the unknown, the “undiscovered country,” as good old Shakespeare said. (Full disclosure: I learned that phrase from the Star Trek movie “Undiscovered Country”, but it still counts as a Shakespeare quote.)

Of course every day is a day that stretches before us as a blank page, full of stories that only the Lord knows ahead of time. As Robert Frost said, “The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected.” But in this new morning of the year 2026, we can still look ahead with hope and make plans for the afternoon. Back in the day, we used to call these plans “New Year’s Resolutions,” but the term has fallen out of favor. Everybody now knows that your firm resolve to exercise daily only lasts a week or two, after which the list of resolutions quietly disappears until the next January 1 comes around.

In our household, we make a list of goals for the coming year, some of them a mere continuance of good habits already established, some of them “one and done” projects, and some of them s-t-r-e-t-c-h goals, meant to move us further along than we’ve been before. I spent the last couple of days working on mine, a process I thoroughly enjoy. I ended up with 91 goals divided among 12 categories. (Full disclosure #2: I am disturbed by the uneven number 91 and feel the specter of Adrian Monk peering over my shoulder begging me to even it up.)

The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected…but in this case, I rather suspect that some of these 91 goals will be going by the wayside, joining a vast number of unmet goals from my past. It matters not. I submit them to God and am confident that He who began a good work in me “will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” The only thing I want to firmly resolve this year is to be like the psalmist David who told the Lord: My soul follows close behind You.” If my soul follows Him so closely that I’m stepping on the train of His robe, that’ll do just fine, 91 goals notwithstanding.

(Full disclosure #3: great was my disappointment after making the above when I realized that I hadn’t remembered the quote correctly before writing it in permanent ink. The specter of Adrian Monk peers over my shoulder about that as well.)

The delete button follows closely behind this post. I think it will catch up to it in the morning.