Jeremy L. Berg

From the DI archives. -JB

Are you tired of Top 10 lists?  Are you tired of talk of resolutions?  I like most top 10 lists but find the resolutions to be a bit too predictable and repetitive. Here’s one such list. According to their research, here are the top 10 New Year resolutions for the past year.

1. Spend More Time with Family & Friends

2. Fit in Fitness

3. Lose Weight

4. Quit Smoking

5. Enjoy Life More

6. Quit Drinking

7. Get Out of Debt

8. Learn Something New

9. Help Others

10. Get Organized

If Christmas is the annual American festival in honor of the god of Materialism and “stuff”, then New Year’s is our annual trip to the altar of self-determination and self-lordship — i.e., the worship of Self. Now, this shouldn’t surprise us. The most primal sin known to the human race — beginning with the first couple and passed right down to me, myself and I — is the desire to plot our own lives, write our own script, control our own destiny and direct our own future.

New Year’s is all about taking personal inventory of our current lifestyle, habits, direction and priorities (good thing) and deciding what needs to change. It’s a well-meaning exercise in self-exertion and self-control. The messages and ads come at us from all directions telling us to “grab life by the horns”, “become a better you”, “have what you want, how you want it and instantly.”  You don’t need to wait on anything; even pastors preach that you can have “your best life now.”

I love planning ahead. I love setting goals, tweaking habits and dreaming about the future. There’s nothing wrong with making changes, setting goals, planning ahead, kicking bad habits and forming good ones.  However, for the Christian this must all be done in relationship with God and under His wise lordship.  If we don’t “make our requests known to God”, as Paul says, then we’ll quite easily keep them to ourselves and attempt to do life on our own power and according to our own best (though flimsy) wisdom.

While the culture whispers into your ear, “You’re the captain of your own soul; the master of your own fate,” we better be letting the words of God into the other ear:

You can make many plans, but the LORD’s purpose will prevail. (Prov 19:21)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. (Prov 3:5)

Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” 14 How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. 15 What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” Otherwise you are boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil. (James 4:13-16)

So, lesson one, which I’ve said many times over in other posts is this: The Christian is not free to chart out his or her life without reference to the Lord whose “purpose will prevail.”  We are not the center of our own universe where we are calling the shots. We don’t make resolutions and ask God to help us keep them.  Just the opposite, we come to God and ask Him what resolutions He would have us make for the New Year.  Then we ask Him to empower us by the Holy Spirit to move toward those God-given objectives and Spirit-led resolutions.

Lesson two, however, is regarding the very nature of the Top 10 resolutions list above.  Who stands at the center of almost all of those resolutions?  Who are they focused on?  You’ll quickly see that they just reinforce our propensity as Americans (and humans!) toward a self-centered existence where it’s all about me, myself and I. My weight. My health. My enjoyment. My learning. My drinking and smoking addictions. My debt. My mess. Only two of ten have Christ-centered ring to them: (#1) spending time with friends and family, and (#9) helping others.

Now, I’m not here to point fingers at others.  I’m as guilty as any. Yet, my mind can’t help but wonder if there could be such a thing as a Christ-centered, Kingdom version of New Year resolutions.

Shouldn’t our lists look a bit different than the rest of the world?  Shouldn’t our goals and priorities look strange and notably more selfless in orientation than the rest of the culture? The Bible continually warns us that we’re strangers and aliens in this world, and the world does not understand the things of God.

So, to put it even more boldly: Let us imagine what Jesus, John or the apostle Paul’s Top 10 New Year resolutions might look like?  Do you think the first place they’d be heading this new year is to the nearest athletic club to work on their gut?