NEW YEAR, NEW ME

2 Corinthians 6:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

You’ve probably heard people say the phrase, “New year, new me,” as if a new rotation around the sun will immediately bring change. At the beginning of the year, there is so much talk of renewal, refreshing, cleansing, changing. January 1st is when so many people decide they are going to start new habits, change old ways, be something newer and better. New Year’s Resolutions. That’s the big thing. Making a list of goals or things to do in the upcoming year. 

I’ve never liked the concept of New Year’s Resolutions. It seems overwhelming. I barely know what the next week will hold for me, much less what I will be doing for the next 365 days. It feels like creating a resolution for a whole year would be setting myself up for failure. Forbes has a study that found only 8% of participants actually held their resolutions through the entire year. EIGHT PERCENT! That’s, like, no one! 

My husband is very disciplined. If he says he’s going to do something, he does it. Last year, he decided he would make monthly resolutions. In January, he stopped drinking soda. In February, he did 100 pushups a day (or some crazy amount like that). He would try things just for the 28-31 days of the month. If he liked it, he’d keep it up. If not, he’d stop. For him, that seemed doable…he lasted 6 months. If my husband can’t even keep up with it, there is no way I’m going to try. Nope.

Still, there is this allure to trying to change, to wanting to become a better version of myself. I think we’re all pretty good at picking out our downfalls and seeing others who are handling them better. I think God created us to crave perfection because he is perfection. When God first created humans, He created them without sin. He created them to do no wrong. God’s plan for the world was perfection. I think that is the world we naturally crave. We long for a world where everything and everyone lives in harmony, where there is an overflow of love and grace, where there is no pain.

But God allowed humans to make choices. He didn’t create robots who were programmed to make the correct decisions every time. He didn’t cast a spell forcing people into submission. No. God gave choices. He gave options. He allowed freedom for decisions. And we do not always choose Him. We do not always make choices that bring us closer to Him. If we are not choosing perfection every time, then perfection cannot exist. One imperfection affects everything else, making everything else imperfect: all the people, all the plants, all the animals, all of creation forever and ever.

And that is where so many of us dwell. In the despair and hopelessness of that thought. “I’m the worst. I’m making everything else worse. What’s the point? I am imperfect. I will always be imperfect.” Will the new year actually change that? Will long term goals change that? No. They will not.

But there, right there, is where God’s eternal plan for the world SHATTERS that thought. God sent his son, a part of God himself, to Earth. He was human made of skin and bones. He experienced physical pain. He grieved friends and loved ones who died. He was betrayed by a close friend. Were he anyone else, he would have been traumatized, depressed, anxious, and would struggle to trust most people. Lucky for us, he was Jesus. He was God incarnate. (“inˈkärˌnāt: embodied in flesh; in human form” definition from the Oxford Dictionary because I had to look it up to make sure I knew what it actually meant so I’m assuming someone else will need the definition.) He was perfect. Because of his perfection, he was able to take on the consequences for our imperfections-past, present, and future. Because of his perfection, God gifted us another piece of himself. For those who believe in Jesus and have a relationship with him, God has given the gift of the Holy Spirit. Through Christ, we are seen as perfect to the one who created us. 

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, 

“if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

Because of the Holy Spirit, we can have a new perspective on the way we live. We have a new lens with which to view life. Because of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, there IS a new me! A me that is full of life, full of hope, full of love. A me that, despite being imperfect, can make small changes to strive to follow the perfect steps of Jesus. 

This year, and every year, my year long goal is to become more like Christ. But that doesn’t just happen. It takes intentionality. It takes a teachable heart. It takes perseverance. It requires knowing where I have fallen, looking to Jesus, and asking him to help me get back up. It requires me to cry out to Jesus in the midst of anxiety and depression and beg him to pull me through. Hopefully, at the end of this year there will be a new me. A me that is wiser. A me that is closer to God. A me that knows his voice and listens intently. A me that feels wholly loved.