New Year, Same Me
Fixing New Year's Resolutions
If you know me personally, it’s probably no surprise to you to hear that I don’t like new year’s resolutions. That said, I have definitely started new habits, began something new, tried to stop something old, etc. at the break of the year. It’s just a good time to make a change. But new year’s resolutions just annoy me. There probably are multiple reasons for it.
Too many new year’s resolutions stem from people being unhappy with themselves and thinking that making one change will solve the problem(s). It might make an impact, but it will not be a total solution. It’s because we often try to mask the symptom rather than solve the core issue. Let me prove it to you.
According to Daniel Im, one of our problems are that we focus only on output goals rather than input goals. We need both. An output goal could be engaging with the Bible. Input goals could be reading the Bible, studying the Bible, confession of sins, reading books about spiritual growth, and making a decision to obey God even if it might cost you.
Input goals directly affect the score of the output goals. If you do those things regularly, you will definitely be engaging with the Bible more. If you only set the output goal and ignore the input goals, the result will be little at best. If your new year’s resolution is to engage with the Bible more (which is the actual output goal people mean when they say “I want to read the Bible more” - most everyone does not mean they want to read it more like they want to read the news more - they want to engage with it) then there must be input goals or else the output goals will not happen.
What if instead of saying, “I want to read the Bible more next year,” you said, “I’m going to wake up 15 minutes early twice a week for the first three months and read through the book of John”? And then after three months decided that though you read it, there’s a lot you didn’t understand. So, for the next three months, you decide to keep the rhythm and the book of John, but added Tom Wright’s John for Everyone or Josh Moody’s John for You to study the book more and gain some understanding. What if you repeated either of those in community with a select couple of people?
Do you see the difference? Reading (just reading) the Bible in 2026 is not going to turn you into the person you want to be or make God answer your prayers in the ways you want. Reading the Bible like your favorite novel won’t have a large impact on your faith. That said, simply deciding to read the Bible at all might be a good and necessary step in your faith. But if you want to be a “better” Christian (how about saying, rather, you want a deeper relationship with Christ?), yes, you need to be in the Word, but you need to be be in intentional community with other believers. You need to confess sin regularly. You need to share the love of Christ. You need to obey God and make that decision daily to follow him. There’s more than one piece of the puzzle, but, you have to start somewhere.
By all means, let’s start realistic habits in January. It’s a good time to start. But let’s recognize that a simple change won’t turn our lives around in three weeks. Starting positive habits and stopping negative ones will change your life over time. Sometimes those just happen based on life’s circumstances. Look back at the past three years. What changed for the better? Now, how could have that changed more if you had intentionally made habitual choices?
2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another…” Don’t try to change your life overnight. Do the work so that God can transform you from one degree of glory to another.
Another year is almost gone. Where would you like to be this time next year?