New Year's Resolutions

Ahh, January 1st.  A new year, a new start and the anticiaption of achieving new goals and dreams.  I love vision casting and mission statements that direct my life toward a bigger picture and life-giving accomplishments.  The reality, of course, is that January 1st slowly dissolves into cold mid-January which fades into early February where already, those new year's resolutions have been abandoned or diminished into something far less inspiring.  "I'm going to exercise every day!" has become, "Well, I went for two runs this week."  Or perhaps "I'm going to read through the entire Bible this year" finds me at least 15 days behind the insanse reading schedule that I never should have declared possible with my lack of discipline.

Sadly, the New Year's Resolutions model has been my lifetime default mode for approaching my Christian life.  I'm going to start praying more!  I'm going to be more patient!  I'm going to have more faith, love, peace, joy...I'm going to live for what is important and not just be enslaved by the urgent!  This year, I'm going to live for God and not for self...

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. 2 Timothy 3:1-7

Interestingly, I always pictured the people described in this passage as shifty eyed, pointy nosed men in dark robes lurking in the wings of some Episcopal church.  (The Episcopal church was my childhood home, so its just the place I had pictured in my mind...I didn't actually see any characters like this there.)  But, that is how I tend to read descriptions of "bad guys" in Scripture.  They appear in my imagination as stereotypical Disney villains - out there, trying to bring me down!

I never realized what the Gospel tells me, that I am that villain.  My new year's resolution Christianity is just that "form of godliness but denying its power" described to Timothy.  I have been always learning more Scripture, collecting more lists of resolutions and to-do lists to make myself more godly.  Unfortunately, this approach failed to recognize the truth that I cannot make myself more holy and my increased determination, self-discipline and white knuckled efforts cannot change my sinful heart into the heart of Jesus.  The handicap of sin makes me utterly dependent on the life of Jesus alone to transform my heart.

The Good News, of course, is that what is impossible with men is possible with God. 
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1
He is making all things new, even me.  It is Christ in me that is my hope of glory.  It is His life in me, growing and bearing fruit, even if imperceptiby, that is the object of my faith...even if that fruit is not always visible and far slower in growing and showing than I would like.  I can't "New Year's Resolution" the production of fruit that is not possible for me to create.

It is God who works in me to will and to act according to His good purposes (Phil. 2:13) and He has promised to complete the good work that He has begun (Phil. 1:6).  So then, my "form of godliness which lacks power" is a Christian life that doesn't trust Him to do this in His time in the way He knows will bring Him the most glory, both for my life and for those who I love.  This was the faith of Adam and Eve, of Abraham, Noah, Moses, the prophets and all of Scripture.  Its the story of Jonah, Job and his friends, Paul and all of Scripture.  We don't turn and change, He interrupts and overrides with kindness, gentleness and guaranteed success.  This is truly what produces a hope that I will become less as He becomes more, and this not by increasing my grit but by trusting His grace.  But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 1 Corinth. 15:10  What Good News for a truly Happy New Year.