A new year provides new opportunities, fresh hope, new plans and the famous new years resolutions; goals we want to hit or habits we want to cultivate for the next 12 months. As we start the year it feels like we have a ‘clean slate’ which gives us renewed vigour and ambition. In a sense, a new year provides us with an opportunity to form a ‘new you’. So before we all carry on as normal I wanted to write a short blog which asks 5 questions about how we can make the most of the year ahead. My aim is not to suggest the resolutions you should or shouldn’t make nor to tell you how to go about achieving them (do read this excellent blog post on forming habits) but to maybe give you 5 questions which can give you a framework on making the most of the year.
(1) Why is the “new you” so important to you?
In God’s eyes motivation is everything. Even the kindest, most generous and sacrificial acts are worthless in his eyes if they were done out of self-interest (see 1 Corinthians 12.1-3). And intuitively we all know that is the case. If I walk an old lady across the road purely so others will think well of me then I wasn’t loving the old lady but loving my reputation.
So the most important question as you think about your new years resolution/goal/habit is to think through why you have made it. Why is this so important to you? From a Christian perspective our motivation should be to love God and others, that is what Jesus said, rather than increase our reputation or status.
Additionally, many of the things that often dominate our new years resolutions (i.e weight, looks, career, money, relationships, discipline, having fun) are not bad things but they may reveal a deeper spiritual need, a need that only God can satisfy. If that’s the case you need to look to him for satisfaction and then make your resolution in response to his great love.
So what’s the motivation behind your resolution?
(2) Is your “new you” sustainable?
We all know that the biggest irony with new years resolutions is that they should really should be called 1-4 month resolutions. By Easter most of us have broken them and are either very despondent or full of excuses. The number 1 question you need to ask is to do with motivation, the number 1 challenge you need to face up to is whether your resolution (e.g gym 5 times a week, a very strict diet, getting up every morning to read the bible) is realistic and sustainable.
If we haven’t looked at how realistic and sustainable, given other priorities and responsibility in our lives like family, work, studies and church, then fresh hope quickly becomes familiar despair, renewed expectations quickly become familiar frustrations and the clean slate quickly becomes another dirty record of failures.
So is your new years resolution sustainable?
(3) What are the potential negative consequences of the “new you”?
We make new years resolutions and plan to establish new habits because we think the results will be positive. And losing weight, getting fit, reading your bible, finding a job, gaining greater financial stability and entering into a relationships are, on the whole, positive things. However they may come at a price and typically those that pay the price are those closest to us who get side-lined for the sake of you achieving your goal. Again, this may not be a bad thing as often existing friendships and relationships can inhibit us and we do need to break out of our comfort zone.
However, with all that considered, naturally we default in our decision making to “what will benefit me?” But as we learnt above, Jesus would want us understand our identity not as a solitary individual but as a person within a community and we are to make our decisions with our family, friends, co-workers, church and, most importantly, God in mind. Not “what will benefit me?” but “what will extend God’s kingdom and do good to others?” This type of decision making flies in the face of our modern culture which values self-expression and autonomy above all else. However, it’s when we understand ourselves within community that we find true community, love and joy – after all we are made in the image of God who is a community of perfect love and joy!
Additionally, there may be some other negative consequences to your own well being if you try to achieve too much, this normally manifests itself in negative fruit like tiredness, restlessness, jealousy and striving.
So what are the potential negative consequences of your resolution, whether to your own life, or to those around you.
(4) Does the “new you” fit into the “10-year you”
I was once told “make less of your 1 year plans and more of your 10 year plans.” The older I have got, the more I see the wisdom in this. Just as our culture desires to find freedom through self-expression and autonomy, so we desire to have that freedom now. We want everything and we want it all now or, better still, yesterday! As a result we are creatures who are easily swayed from side to side by the latest fad. On the whole we don’t plan and pray about the kind of characters and the kind of lives we want to cultivate over the next 10 years, things which are far more important to God and far more useful in the long-run.
So how do your plans for this year fit into your plans and desires for the next 5-10 years, particularly with regards internal character change?
(5) How does Jesus figure in the “new you”?
Sounds obvious doesn’t it?! But how much has Jesus figured in your thinking over the last 2 weeks as you have made your plans? God’s will for our lives is not to give us everything we want but to give us everything we need. And above all we need Jesus, his love, presence and peace. And God is far more interested in whether the character of Christ is being formed in us than whether we achieve any external goals.
So how does Jesus figure in the “new you”?
As a church we are going to spend the next 5 weeks looking at the book of Colossians to make sure Jesus is front and centre in our minds and plans as we think about the year ahead, both individually and as a community. The Colossians were a young church plant that had started well but was now tempted to drift and was trying to progress and mature without Jesus. They thought there was something more, something better. So the Apostle Paul writes a letter to encourage them to stick with what they already know, but go deeper. The book can be summarised by these verses from chapter 2 (vs6-10)
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him,7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world this world rather than on Christ.9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness.
If Christ is both your motivation and foundation then you’ll make plans that are sustainable, that set you on a trajectory that will last well beyond 10 years, that will glorify God and bless others and that will only reap positive, life-giving, fruit in your life.
I hope you will join us over the next 5 weeks, here is what we’ll be doing:
- 4th January (Colossians 1.15-23) – Jesus is enough, part 1
- 11th January (Colossians 2.5-10) – Jesus is enough, part 2
- 18th January (Colossians 2.16-23) – Counterfeit Spiritualities (false ways to grow)
- 25th January (Colossians 3.18-4.1) – Work and Unemployment (living for the audience of one)
- 1st February (Colossians 4.2-6) – Being a church for the good of Dublin (Vision Sunday and launch of City Groups)
Then on February 8th we’ll kick off our 8 part series called “Sex in the City” – more to follow!!