I'm sitting in my office at my desk and I just looked over to my right, and I suddenly realized: I need to get a new calendar. There are no days left on my calendar. It's December 31. And I'm going out for New Year's Eve tonight, and by the time I get home it will be 2015. (Note to self: before leaving office, thrown 2014 calendar in the garbage.)
January 1 seems so arbitrary to me. I'm thinking here of so-called New Year's Resolutions. Why "New Year's" Resolutions? Why not just "Resolutions"? I've often told people that long, long ago I set a New Year's Resolution that I have been able to keep for many years - I resolved to never again make a New Year's Resolution. So, far - so good! Mission accomplished. And now I'm wondering why we make New Year's Resolutions anyway? Yeah. I get the significance of the date. It IS a new year after all. So, sure, you want to start things off on the right foot, so to speak. But it still strikes me as arbitrary. And, spiritually, well - why? What's the point of deciding that all (or at least some) good things will start or all (or at least some) bad things will stop on January 1? Let me share my three biggest spiritual objections to New Year's Resolutions.
First, you're setting yourself up for failure. We all know that people who make New Year's Resolutions don't keep most of them. Often, it's only a matter of time before we break down. So, why set yourself up like that? Why make such a big thing out of deciding to do something or not do something that you actually give it a name and a date that ensures that when you fail you're going to remember? That doesn't make sense. That's very close to planning for failure - which is never a recipe for success, unless, of course, you want to fail, in which case you'll probably succeed. But if your goal is actually to do something positive or to stop doing something negative, then why start by setting yourself up so blatantly to fail? That doesn't make sense.
Second (and very much related to the first) is that the probability of failure is almost a denial of divine grace. Why do I say that? Because you're going to feel like a failure when you don't do the thing you pledged to do or stop the thing you pledged to stop. And it seems to me that the more you set yourself up for failure, the more you're going to fail, and the more you're going to fail at something you pledged to succeed at, the less likely it is that you're going to feel as if God wants to shower you with grace. He does. God wants to shower you with grace. So commit to doing your best in all things. Commit to living a life more fully reflecting the life of Jesus. Don't expect that it's going to happen all at once. Don't make it an all or nothing / success or failure sort of thing. Christianity is about ongoing transformation. If we get it into our heads that everything's going to be fine as of January 1 when our New Year's Resolution takes effect, then we're going to find ourselves pretty guilty when we wake up on January 1 and discover that we're not much different than we were on December 31. If you make it a "Resolution" then you have to do it or not do it and never slip up. If you make it a part of your ongoing walk of faith, you can let the Holy Spirit work on you gradually.
Finally, why procrastinate? Let me put it this way. If there's something in your life that really, really needs to change right away then why put it off? If there's something you're doing that you know you shouldn't be doing then why set a deadline? Jesus didn't say to the woman caught in adultery, "Go and sin no more beginning on January 1." He said "Go and sin no more." If there's something that you really should be doing but you've been putting off then why put it off some more. Jesus didn't say "love your neighbour starting on January 1." He just said "love your neighbour." Start making the changes you need to make right away (keeping in mind what I said above that there will always be slip ups along the way, and that God's grace will cover those.) But don't put off making positive changes for the sake of some arbitrary date on the calendar.
I understand the appeal of New Year's Resolutions. January 1 may be arbitrary, but it has a symbolic value - even from a spiritual point of view. Paul tells us that in Christ we are a new creation - that the old has passed away and the new has come. What better way to symbolize that then by connecting positive changes to January 1? Except for the three things I mentioned above!
Just change what you need to change. Don't wait for January 1. If the thought comes to you on September 16, and it seems good to the Holy Spirit and to you, then make the change then rather than waiting until January 1.
As for me, I'm still going to keep the one New Year's Resolution that I've never broken - no New Year's Resolutions for me this year. I'm just gonna take life as it comes, a day at a time, and try to remember that Jesus is walking the path with me every day.
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