Kicking a habit - or starting something new - is not a bad thing, says Andy Witherall. But if our constant resolve is to ‘make’ this year the one that everything changes, it might signal a deeper desire
In December 2021, I bought my first pair of running shoes. The plan was simple. I could indulge in all the Christmas goodies I wanted up until 1 January, and then it was time to get fit and healthy. I had visions of regular 5k runs come rain or shine. I did well for the first month but, having factored in the ‘rain’ and ‘shine’, I failed to plan for February’s ice and snow. By March the big freeze had finally gone - and so had my exercise routine. But that was OK – it was just another ten months until the next new year!
Perhaps this story sounds familiar. Every January, the phrase: “Happy New You!” chimes out as people prepare to have another go at those resolutions. But, as you get older, these words can feel less hopeful and more futile - because we said it last year, and the ten years before that. Might our constant resolve to make each year the one that changes everything suggest that there is something deeper to our ongoing quest for a better us?
We cannot replace Jesus as the only one who can meet our deepest needs
The resolve to improve life can certainly be positive. But, by their very nature, New Year’s resolutions are built upon dissatisfaction somewhere. And if we constantly fail in our resolutions, could it be that we are looking for that satisfying ‘something’ in the wrong place?
Made for more
The Bible says that, as people made in the image of God, we have certain God-given desires. In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon writes that God has “set eternity in the human heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). People are made for eternal communion with the eternal God. This deeper purpose creates in our hearts a desire for something more than our fleeting and temporal world can provide.
In Mere Christianity, CS Lewis writes: “Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that can offer it to you, but they never quite keep their promise.” He continues: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
More recently, another writer, Dan Strange, has made a similar argument. Building on the work of theologian Herman Bavinck, Strange identifies five areas in which human beings, made in God’s image, desire fulfilment above all. These relate to connecting to others and the wider universe, finding the right way to live, yearning for a way out of the suffering and brokenness of our fallen world, seeking to control our destiny and finding a connection to a ‘something beyond’ - a transcendent reality.
For Strange, the answer to each of these God-given yearnings is found only in Jesus. But until we acknowledge this and turn to him, we will seek fulfillment elsewhere - and we will come away empty.
Looking to Jesus
Lewis and Strange share the same assumption that human beings are created in the image of God, for relationship with God. This is why the Christmas story is one of hope. The little baby, lying in a manger, would become the man hanging upon a cross, bearing the sin of the world and paying the price in full. He would be the one through whom our estrangement with God would be overcome and in whom our hearts might finally find their rest.
Without Jesus, we are constantly looking for hope, meaning and fulfilment in all kinds of places. We immerse ourselves in our relationships, hobbies, careers or personal health. None of these things are wrong in themselves, but we are not made for these things, and they cannot replace Jesus as the only one who can meet our deepest needs.
Might our resolve to make each year the one that changes everything suggest that there is something deeper to our ongoing quest for a better us?
What does all of this mean for our New Year’s resolutions? Are they simply poor substitutes for the thing we truly lack? Not necessarily. The New Year provides a great opportunity to try new things, improve our quality of life or break bad habits. But if we are in a constant search for that missing ‘something’ that we can never seem to find, it might just be that what we desire is found in the one place we have yet to consider: Jesus Christ.
Hunger and hope
In his Gospel, John recounts a time when Jesus was surrounded by a great crowd of people. Just 24 hours earlier he had fed 5,000 men (and an untold number of women and children) with nothing more than a packed lunch. Now they had come to him for more food. They thought their greatest need was their hunger, but Jesus knew that their need could be met only in him. And so, he tells them plainly: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” And two verses later he gives an open invitation: “Whoever comes to me, I will never drive away” (John 6:35-37).
New Year’s resolutions can be positive. As I get my running shoes ready, I hope to make it past the winter freeze this time. But perhaps for you, this year might be different. Perhaps 2025 will begin not just in taking up a new hobby or breaking an old habit, but in coming to know the one who has come “that they may have life and have it to the full” (John 10:10).
Now that really would be a ‘Happy New You!’
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