Wednesday, January 01, 2020

New Year's Resolutions (2020)

Ten Years
1. Should one set decade goals? Here's one:
  • I hope still to be alive in 10 years. If so, I'll be 63.
I expect a good deal will happen with my children in the next ten years. Will I have grandchildren? What will they be like? Will someone finally listen to me!!!

In 10 years I wonder if my son will be a career Army man. In 10 years I wonder if Sophie will be doing something in the world of governmental service. I imagine Stefanie will still be living a sun-filled life in Miami, and Stacy a sun-filled life in California.

2. In 10 years I hope I'll still either be teaching or leading in some way in higher education. I would be delighted still to be at Houghton College. When I came to Houghton this past fall, I came planning to be here for the rest of my career. That's at least 2037.

3. In 10 years time I hope I will have finished some academic books that are in the back of my mind and in various stages of development. These include:
  • Four Jewish Views of the Afterlife
  • Salvation in the Making
  • An academic commentary on Hebrews or perhaps a collection of essays on Hebrews that covers the whole book (I about have enough published for that already)
  • A commentary on Philo's treatise, "Who is the Heir of All Things"
  • A philosophy book on the nature of meaning
2020
4. This year my primary focus is enrollment growth at Houghton College. I want to contribute as much as I can to the growth of on-campus programs like data science and engineering, as well as to the goal of adding 100 new online students by next year at this time. Feel free to audit an online course, a new initiative!

5. Let's pick one of the academic books above as a focus for this year's writing. Four Jewish Views of the Afterlife it is. I started work on such a book in 2004 while on sabbatical in Germany.

6. I will continue my work on Patreon. I plan to continue looking at Genesis 1 in Hebrew, a verse a week. I will continue my weekly podcast, "Though the Bible in Ten Years."

A new addition is Greek lessons, primarily aimed at pastors. I plan to work through the Greek textbook I've written, putting videos on YouTube that go through it. Then I'll self-publish it at the end. (No publisher understandably seems interested in a Greek textbook.)

7. Books to read. There will no doubt be good books that surface in the course of the year, but I'd like to finish off some old ones. May I finally finish the following books this year. The months are just to give me focus. These are heavy books what will likely take all year.
  • January: N. T. Wright, History and Eschatology
  • February: Craig Keener, Christobiography
  • March: Willie James Jennings
  • April: Assorted N. T. Wright
  • May: John Barclay
  • June on: the above and TBD
8. I continue to inch through physics, calculus, and chemistry textbooks. I got diverted this fall trying to help my daughter Sophie with biology. But let me set some unreasonable goals here. Physics (p.779), Calculus (p.559).

9. Run. I'm missed running 3 miles under 30 minutes in 2019. I tore my knee in September. But I refuse to give up. I ran a mile Saturday under 10. I shall return!

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