Although it’s been a New Year’s resolution of mine for more Januaries than I’d like to admit, I still didn’t finish learning the Lord’s Prayer in Korean this year.  Somewhere between the place where His kingdom comes and His will gets done, I fizzled out again. And if the statistics are accurate it seems that I’m in good company. The Wall Street Journal once cited a 2007 study from the University of Bristol which showed that 78% of people who set New Year goals failed to fulfill them.  Given the bleak prospect of success (my own failure rate is likely much higher!), what is more shocking than the statistic itself is the notion that most of us will still continue to set new resolutions for the coming year even though the majority of us didn’t keep them the last time around.  Or the time before that.

Formal or informal, most of us will contemplate the setting of some kind of goals for 2012.  And although we might not be aware of it, often the starting point by which the majority of us will arrive at those goals is by first asking ourselves some questions. As we contemplate how we might attain the future that we are hoping for we will often begin with an internal quiz of sorts that leads us to our resolutions.   Perhaps that dialogue might sound something like this:

• How can I stop smoking?  I will cut back to 2 cigarettes per day and go cold turkey in March.  I will talk to my doctor and ask for support from my family.
• How do I get a raise or promotion at work?  I will offer to take the lead on the next project, prepare more for meetings and will meet with my supervisor for mentoring
• How can I get more energy?  I will cut out 300 calories a day and drink water.  I will go to bed by 10:30 and will get some exercise during lunch at least 3 days a week
• How can I be more financially secure? I will aggressively pay off credit card debt by June and will work at creating a 2 month emergency fund by the end of the year
• What kind of relationships do I want to have?  I will date my spouse on Thursdays and turn off the laptop until the kids go to bed. I will join a small group at church.™
• How can I achieve a happier, more peaceful life…?

Simply put, the goals that we set are most often born out of our internal questions about ways to cultivate a better future for ourselves.  And it is in answering these questions that most of us find our resolutions for the New Year.  When we arm ourselves with the prospect of improving life during the next 365 days, excitement and hope mingle, if only for the first few weeks. So, maybe there is a better way to go about our goal setting.  Perhaps we need a new perspective on the transition to January 1^st that will increase the odds of our success.

G.K. Chesterton had this to say about our concept of the “new year,”

“The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year.  It is that we should have a new soul…”

A new soul!  What an incredible thought!  Instead of aiming all our focus on improving how we look, what we drive, and who we are with, what if we saw God’s transforming power at work in our souls this year? 

Transforming our Minds

Whenever the idea of personal transformation is brought up, Romans chapter 12 is commonly quoted and with good reason:

¹ Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Perhaps so many of us fail at becoming new each year because we are not becoming re-newed in our minds!   It is only from this renewed place that we can begin to see more clearly God’s will for our future.  Transformation won’t happen—new souls won’t happen—by continuing to form our goals based on the questions that we ask out of our un-renewed thinking.

Transforming our Questions

So, this year I wondered what it would look like if my resolutions originated, not with my own questions, as usual, but with some of the questions that Jesus asked.   There are over one hundred recorded for us throughout the New Testament and each of them can contribute to our transformation and renewal.  Here are a few that have resonated with me the most in this season.   As I prayerfully reflected on their context and intent, God began to speak to me about the personal goals He is asking me to adopt this year.

Here are just a few of Jesus’ questions and the goals I’ve established in response:

™ Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your lifespan? (Matthew 6:27)

• After a long hiatus I will begin to regularly journal again.  This discipline has always proven to be helpful in processing anxiety as it allows me to express my concerns before the Lord and to have a written record of God’s past faithfulness.

™ Why are you anxious about clothes? (Matthew 6:28)

• I’ve never considered myself to be an overly materialistic person, but recently I’ve noticed that a greater preoccupation with “stuff” has crept into my thinking.  The last phone I purchased had more bells and whistles than I needed; and, the joy I once had at driving a car that had been “paid off” began to wilt as I realized that our church parking lot looks an awful lot like the showroom of a luxury dealership.  This year, I will commit not to upgrade unnecessarily and to make the stewardship of what God has already provided a much higher priority. (Does the oil in my car really need to be changed every 3,000 miles?)

Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye yet fail to perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?(Matthew 7:2)

• My life has been plagued by a “thorn in the flesh” for many years now—a person that has wreaked emotional havoc in our family’s life due to her own family of origin issues.  When I was younger, she attempted to reach out to me by writing a letter asking for forgiveness. In my immaturity I ignored that letter and my bitterness only grew.  After several years of pushing that memory away, God has begun to put his finger on my self-righteous attitude, in general, and with this individual, in particular.  This year, I will write that long-overdue letter of response and, in doing so, come face to face with my own plank.  While it might not change things in the relationship (although it just might!), I believe God will use it to change me and my quickness to see fault in others before I see it in me.

Why are you terrified? (Matthew 8:26)

• Jesus put this question to his disciples as they got thrashed about at sea during a storm. God used this question to point to some fear in my own life, chiefly, the fear of man.  Proverbs 29:25 paints a picture for us—fearing man more than God will be like stepping your foot into a trap.  In reflection, I’ve found that every decision that I made while operating under the fear of man has been the wrong decision.  My goal in this area is to be more reflective and hence discerning of my motives regarding decision making and the tackling of tough issues. I will, and now have, sought out a pastoral counselor who I will meet with monthly to help contend with the people-pleasing nature and compassion fatigue that ensnares so many ministers in that fear-of-man trap.  Interestingly, within the first week of this year I had the opportunity to put this goal into action as it became clear that a serious issue of brokenness in the life of a fellow ministry leader from another church needed to be addressed.  Although I knew it was necessary to bring the situation to light, a large part of me still desired to “keep the peace” by keeping my mouth shut.  However, through the Holy Spirit’s prompting and the counsel of a wise ministry mentor, the tendency to operate in the fear of man was suppressed, the necessary steps were taken, and a tremendous work of healing and restoration has already begun.   Praise God!

These are but a few of the challenges that I believe God is leading me to take up in this new year.  “Why are you sleeping,” another favorite question of Jesus, is already crying out to be answered in ways that will call me to wake up in certain areas of my life. Here are a few more questions recorded in Scripture that God might use to spark your own practical, spiritual resolutions as you reflect on them:

• Do you believe I can do this? (Matthew 9:28)
• Did you never read the scriptures? (Matthew 21:42)
• Why did you doubt? (Matthew 14:31)
• How many loaves do you have? (Matthew 15:34)
• But who do you say that I am? (Matthew 16:15)
• What profit is gaining the whole world but losing your soul? (Matthew 16:26)
• If you cant be trusted w/worldly wealth who will trust you w/true wealth? (Luke 16:11)
• Has none but this one returned to give thanks to God? (Luke 17:18)

Chesterton Revisited

Here is Chesterton’s quote in its entirety:

“The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man makes his New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective.”

As we begin this new year reflecting on the questions that come from the heart of Jesus rather than the mind of man, we may find that our resolutions have been rescued from the pit of ineffective failure and have landed our souls into a place of transformation.  Perhaps God will use His son’s words to challenge you to:

• Put more energy into your spiritual growth in specific ways
• Carve out more time for your family and cultivating healthy relationships
• Make a habit of giving God your anxiety not numbing it with an activity or substance
• Actively pursue ways to serve rather than waiting for opportunities to come to you
• Forgive someone who has caused you pain and let them off your hook
• Commit, for one year, to forgo unnecessary upgrades to your devices
• Stretch yourself in giving and serving lavishly and in secret
• Make God’s interests your top priority even at the cost of personal interests

Am I the 12%?

So instead of ending next year with the questions, “Why did I fail? How did I get so off track again?  When will things change?,” I want to start this year with the questions of Jesus and let them form the goals that I will make.  In changing the criteria for making my resolutions, I’m praying that I’ll be a part of the 12% who succeed in seeing the kind of lasting change that brings about personal, eternal transformation.  Yes, I am still hoping to keep my car cleaner, to lose a few pounds, to blog more often and to finally finish memorizing the Korean Lord’s prayer–and there is nothing wrong with those resolutions! But this year, I’m sensing that it’s time to dig a little deeper.  And maybe somewhere in the process I’ll find that, this time, God has given me a new soul and not just another new year.