This is, perhaps, one of the best New Year's Resolutions that I've heard (or seen!) yet. It's by Dan Wallace of DTS. I think he's right on. I love his heart revealed here...
So, this year, I’m making one new year’s resolution—viz., not to make any new year’s resolutions.
It’s not just that they don’t work; the focus is all wrong. Even if I had a 100% success rate in New Year’s resolutions, it would be all wrong because the goals would be short-sighted and the means would be self-glorifying. No more New Year’s resolutions for me. No, what I want is to know Christ, to love Christ, to obey Christ, to glorify Christ beyond what I had never dreamt of before.
But this is not my new year’s resolution that will fail in a couple of weeks, not to be reviewed or reflected on till next December 31; this is my weekly confession, even daily and hourly confession, that though constantly tainted with failure will nevertheless be the objective that does not go away, that does not wait for twelve months before I decide that it was just a pipedream, causing me to pick on something more ‘practical’ next year. No, this is what I want now, today, every day. And when I fail now, today, and every day, I will confess who I am and confess who Christ is, and he will pick me up and enable me to follow him again. And I will know that my new day’s, new hour’s, new week’s resolution is coming to fruition in my life if I have a genuine, growing love for fellow believers, an increasing concern for their greatest good, and a deeper sense that others are more important than I am. I’ve got a long, long way to go—but at least at the end of the tunnel is not a new and improved me, but Christ himself.
So, this year, I’m making one new year’s resolution—viz., not to make any new year’s resolutions.
It’s not just that they don’t work; the focus is all wrong. Even if I had a 100% success rate in New Year’s resolutions, it would be all wrong because the goals would be short-sighted and the means would be self-glorifying. No more New Year’s resolutions for me. No, what I want is to know Christ, to love Christ, to obey Christ, to glorify Christ beyond what I had never dreamt of before.
But this is not my new year’s resolution that will fail in a couple of weeks, not to be reviewed or reflected on till next December 31; this is my weekly confession, even daily and hourly confession, that though constantly tainted with failure will nevertheless be the objective that does not go away, that does not wait for twelve months before I decide that it was just a pipedream, causing me to pick on something more ‘practical’ next year. No, this is what I want now, today, every day. And when I fail now, today, and every day, I will confess who I am and confess who Christ is, and he will pick me up and enable me to follow him again. And I will know that my new day’s, new hour’s, new week’s resolution is coming to fruition in my life if I have a genuine, growing love for fellow believers, an increasing concern for their greatest good, and a deeper sense that others are more important than I am. I’ve got a long, long way to go—but at least at the end of the tunnel is not a new and improved me, but Christ himself.
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