A New Year Every Day

In honor of the New Year, just a couple days away, I have 2 lists regarding New Year's Resolutions (NYRs):

Standard 10 Resolutions: Stop smoking, stop drinking, get into shape, lose weight, enjoy life more, get organized, learn something new, get out of debt, spend more time with family and help people.

Top 10 Different Resolutions: 1. Get your photo taken in 5 interesting and new places. 2. Learn a party trick. 3. Break a record. 4. Make a new friend every month. 5. Develop a good relationship with your body. 6. Learn something new that you didn’t learn as a child. (This is nurturing your inner child.) 7. Try a new food each week. 8. Make the usual unusual. 9. Settle a financial worry. 10. Do something nice for others each day.

Here are a few observations about NYRs: Most fail because they are made with little thought, usually within a week, or two, if not an hour of the New Year. One study shows 38% strongly do not make NYRs, of which I am now one. 64% of NYRs are broken by the end of the month, most of those by the end of the first week. And finally, did you notice, of the two lists, others were last. I looked at several “Christian” NYRs lists as well, and sadly, they also have ‘others’ listed last. Take care of yourself and then others.

Now as the new year is upon us, for the most part, we enjoy it, what it represents. It represents a new start, a fresh start. For some reason, we live life in blocks of time. We look at another hour, another day, another week, another month, another year. So the new year is here, and with it, we know that all that has happened in 2012, and that which didn’t happen, is gone. It is behind us.

But in that, we reflect on the previous year. We look at ourselves and weigh ourselves. We think about missed opportunities, struggles in life, be they medical, economical, or relational. We look at our faults and weaknesses. And that’s where the NYRs come in. We realize that we are lacking. We know the truth of Romans 3.23, of our sinfulness. We want to be better this coming year. Now here are some ways in which I can become a better person, thus the NYRs, fresh goals for the fresh year.

Now regarding NYRs, one expert has said that one of the main reasons NYRs fail is from the lack of tools needed to achieve the goal. Do you know that as Christians, we do have the tools needed to keep any NYRs that we make? This morning, we are going to look at some tools needed. Or perhaps measures by which we can have a new year, a fresh start every day. So when we blow it, we don’t have to wait for the year to start over.

First measure comes from the Gospel of Matthew, 11:28-30. Jesus knows how tired living life is, how hard it is.  He knows that we are bogged down, so he gives us an offer, a trade. Rather than focusing on ourselves, we give ourselves to him, and in trade, he gives us a new burden, a lighter one, one for the kingdom. It is interesting that most of the problems in life that anyone suffers, comes from being selfish. It is hard to worship and bow down to one’s own self. Have you tried it lately? Bow down to yourself. You cannot do it, and yet, as society, as the world turns, that is exactly what people try to do every day. The message they hear is: “Me first, me first!” You deserve this new car. You deserve to have this action done for you. You deserve this, you deserve that.

With Jesus, from the beginning it was all about putting others first. Look at the 10 commandments. The first 5 are about how we treat God. See other here. These are not about us, but about God. Now the 5^th is a transitionary one, but still about others, in this case, our parents. Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, and do not lie are all about how we treat others. 9 of the first 10 are others, whereas on average, 8 or 9 of NYRs are about me. The last one, do not covet, is truly about the “me”.  In a sense, God is laying before us the map of a sure mess. Focus on you, and here’s what will happen. You’ll start to lie, then steal, then cheat, and then murder, and disrespect your parents, and then defame, speak against God. Jesus says that we trade our focus. Rather than on us, we focus on our neighbor. Jesus continues on with other passages about humility and putting others first, but this is enough to focus on now. We couple this with our prayer verse, Luke 10.2, and we change our perspective to a kingdomly perspective.

The Second Measure comes from Paul’s letter to the Church of Corinthian (2 Cor. 5.17). We take up Jesus’ yoke of burden when we clothe ourselves in Christ. We are then in Him, and therefore a new creation. You see, what has plagued us in the past, our sins, our failures, whatever, all of that is nothing now. We are no longer the same wastes that we have seen ourselves. Paul continues this passage in verse 19, that God does not hold our sins against us. That is a huge picture of grace here. God, through the work of Jesus, put our sins away, and reconciled us. Another passage, Paul says that God has adopted us. We are no longer waste, but we are children of the King of the Universe. We are holy children. We are forgiven and new.

I would be remiss if I left out Philippians 1.6 where Paul tells us that being a new creation, God continues to work on us. We continue to change. Whereas all the NYRs focus on the person doing the work, here are two passages that tell us that God, someone not me, is doing the work. This is an ongoing process.

Being an ongoing process, let’s consider the final measure we will look at this morning. Paul wrote these words in one of his last letters. Philippians 3.13-16. Here he is talking about being made perfect. He hasn’t. He said that God is still at work just a couple of chapters from this passage. I guess that we can say that this is more a reminder than anything else. What has happened is gone and is past. Too often we are tempted to live by the failures of the year, of life. We focus on what we could have done instead of what there is to be done. For some, they let what has happened to become their anchor. Because of some pain that they suffered, terrible as it is, keeps them from doing whatever. Because a mother abandoned her son, he became a man who never trusted a woman because he was waiting for her to betray or leave him, just like his mom. This means he might be married half a dozen times, or never married, just going from one woman to the next. Is there a pain that you have allowed to become your anchor? Paul says that is in the past.

Of course the context of the passage was more addressing successes of the past. They can be as much of an anchor or hindrance to living for Christ as pain was. When we so focus on the highs of the past, we stop dreaming for what can be done tomorrow.  We end up losing our vision. Whatever has been, was. It is interesting that verse 13 became the vision for Walt Disney, whether he acknowledged it or not. It came out in the movie several years ago, “Meet the Robinsons”. WD was known for always looking forward. In the face of success, he looked forward. In the face of adversity and failure, he still looked forward.

Now the new year is upon you. You may not be the type to make NYRs. But remember, since you have taken up Jesus’ burden, you now are new creation that our Father is still working on, that you no longer need to be shackled by the past woes. Even if you fall flat on your face Wednesday, Thursday is a brand new year. So is Friday. So is today.