There is no doubt that it’s a new year. Just as you can tell the time by the positioning of the sun, you can tell the New Year by the positioning of ads for exercise equipment in the newspaper. On the front page of the Dick’s Sporting Goods ad in Sunday’s paper was a plethora of exercise equipment. It’s a new year, and with every new year comes New Year’s resolutions. At the top of almost everyone’s list is exercise and diet. Health Clubs and Fitness stores are challenging your resolution to get in shape. They’re offering deals you can’t refuse, and most people will bite. Fitness clubs will typically see their highest increase in membership during the month of January.
There is something to be said for a new start. Have you noticed that most people don’t start diets in the middle of the week, or even in the middle of the month? They typically start on a Monday or on the first day of the new month. We are motivated by newness. There is nothing like a fresh start…a chance to wipe the slate clean and start over. That’s why there’s so much hype around the new year—it’s motivating. The previous year is just that…previous. It just doesn’t matter anymore.
Maybe that’s why Paul refers to us as a new creation in 2 Corinthians 5:17. He says, “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old is gone the new has come.” That’s motivating! Our old way of living doesn’t matter. Our past doesn’t matter. Our mistakes don’t matter. We have been made new by the blood of Christ! Joe Ellis in his new book, Get Real, Church, says this about newness: “When people become Christians, they do not continue to be the persons they were, with church membership tacked on like adding a room to an existing house. Christianity is not simply improvement, but transformation; more than remodeling, it is reconstruction. It is a matter of becoming, in Christ, new and different persons.”
If your goal this year is to get in shape physically, you cannot follow the old ways of eating; if your goal is to get in shape spiritually, you cannot follow the old ways of living. All things must become new…new thoughts, new routines, new actions, and new systems. Jesus said that you can’t put new wine in old wineskins. New and old don’t mix.
One of my favorite “Successories” pictures shows a lady running down a country road in the snow. The quote at the bottom says, “If you want what you’ve never had, you must do what you’ve never done.” This new year, I would challenge you to live anew. Set some goals to grow and get in shape spiritually. Get plugged into a Life Group; discover your spiritual gift and get involved in a ministry; make it a priority to be here on time for worship and be engaged as you celebrate the goodness of God; read through the Scriptures this year, but more importantly, let the Scriptures get through you.
Amazingly enough, by the time you read this, the majority of New Year’s resolutions will be broken, and in a few months there will be less waiting in line at the gym. Those people will wait until January 1, 2009 to start new. But Christ followers don’t have to wait that long. By the grace of Jesus, we have a new start everyday. I pray you’ll be motivated by that newness to do what you’ve never done in order to obtain what you’ve never had.
By the way…one of my resolutions was to begin blogging…so far, so good!
Happy New Year!
Shawn