New Years Resolution or Sacred Stewardship?
“Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River, and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Joshua 24:14-15 ESV
What are Christians supposed to do with New Year’s? Is it just another Hallmark holiday or an invitation from God?
I can’t tell you how many people I’ve heard over the last week express that they weren’t into New Year’s resolutions, only to then share the changes they were hoping to make.
Human beings are unique in that God has put within us the desire to improve and the freedom to choose whether to move in the direction God is calling us or another way. A sacred stewardship, he gives us the precious gift of our lives to spend as we choose.
If God created us this way, instead of the New Year being about making resolutions, could it be a reminder of our sacred stewardship and a fresh invitation to reorient ourselves to receive the abundant life God has for us?
And is there a biblical connection to this holiday and the ritual of setting resolutions?
As it turns out, there is! In the Old Testament the people of Israel observed seven annual festivals (Leviticus 23), when they took time away from their ordinary lives to worship. Then, reorient their lives back to their highest priorities; God, their families, and neighbors, and to straighten any crooked areas where they had gotten off track or polluted by the world.
Although through Christ, we have been given a new covenant and are no longer bound to festivals and holy days, the good that we can hold onto from the festivals is the importance of regular times to pause, worship, reflect, and re-orient our lives back to God’s plan.
New Year’s offers the perfect opportunity to do this. The problem is that the way we are trained to do it by making resolutions and the way God calls us to, are very different.
Chatting with a friend recently, our conversation turned to the year ahead. The countless possibilities for the New Year poured out. Before we knew it the vast number of ideas left us feeling more overwhelmed than inspired.
As we sat silently, gazing across the table at each other, a more important question surfaced—not, “What could you do, or do you dream of doing in the year ahead?” but, “What do you believe God is asking of you this year, and what steps do you need to take to be faithfully do it?”
Within a minute or so, we each responded with a much simpler, clearer answer.
What is important about the new year is not buying a gym membership or making elaborate lists of all the things you’re going to change. But recognizing this 1st day of the year, as an opportunity to worship, put your highest priorities in place again, and to ask the Lord what people, and responsibilities, he is calling you to in the year ahead.
Then, like Joshua and God’s people thousands of years ago, draw a line in the sand, get rid of the things you need to, put the things in place you need to walk sincerely and faithfully with him. Then celebrate as God’s precious child, the sacred stewardship of your life and the gift of choice to decide this day who you will serve.
That’s the blessing of New Year’s.