“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17, New International Version)

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Have you ever wondered who put Christmas and New Year’s so close together?! It’s rather unfortunate timing when you think about it…how do you make a serious New Year’s resolution to get healthy in 2016, when the festive red velvet cake is on the counter and celebratory eggnog is in the refrigerator?

Bad scheduling or not, it’s that time of year. It’s time to decide what will be different in 2016. I have a few suggestions for fulfilling 2016 New Year’s resolutions so that they are not on your list again in 2017!

1. Forgiveness first. So many actions that we want to change are actually rooted in sin. After pastoring for more than 35 years, I don’t want to sound “preachy” here, but let’s not overlook this: If the change we want to make is something that God expects of us, then we need to get it right with God first. For instance, if we want to get out of debt in 2016, perhaps we must first seek God’s forgiveness for the greed that made all those purchases look so attractive in the first place. Getting right with God is prerequisite to getting right with ourselves.
2. Be specific. What gets measured tends to get completed. Suppose our resolution is to spend more time with our family. What does “more time” look like? Is it measured in hours per week or in activities per month? Is it a monthly father/son lunch or a weekly phone call? Specificity can be scary, because it calls us out when we fail. But it can also be exhilarating, because we know when we succeed.
3. Leave it behind. Before we can travel down a new path, we have to step off the old one first. In the New Testament, a recurring idea is the image of putting off and putting on. Often with the metaphor of clothing, Paul describes the virtues of the Christian life. We should put off such qualities as impurity, greed, anger, filthy language, and lying. As these are removed from our lives, we can then put on the virtues of compassion, humility, patience, forgiveness, and love (for example, see Ephesians 4:22-5:20 and Colossians 3:5-17). For example, a resolution to read more in 2016 means we may need to turn off the television.  We have to put off the old before we can put on the new.
4. Make a plan. How will we get where we want to be? Whom do we need around us and aware of our goals that will help us succeed? My wonderful wife is a health coach (time for my shameless plug). She spends her days encouraging people in their efforts to get healthy, with almost 350 people on her team currently. In 2016, she and I lost 80 pounds each, and she was my health coach! She laid out the plan for me, listened patiently to my struggles when a fast food burger sounded better than cabbage steaks, and encouraged me every step of the way. For the first time in my life, losing weight is not my resolution for 2016! Thanks to my encourager, I had a route map.
5. Live life daily. We can only live one day at a time, and we ought to spend it thanking God for not telling us what tomorrow holds. As we pursue our goals, we should still live a life wholly present and completely connected.  Live fully, along the way to successes. 2016 is a gift, not just a goal!

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