A Better Resolution

Happy New Year! Yes, that means this will be a New Year’s Resolution article. No, this is not your traditional resolution exhortation! This is a framework that, I think, can animate all of your other hopes and dreams for 2025. Big statement, I know, but I believe it.

A Different Way of Thinking

Paul in Philippians 3:12-15a says, “Not that I have already reached the goal [of knowing Christ fully] or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. ¹³  Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, ¹⁴  I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵  Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way.” (CSB)

We could honestly end this article here and meditate on this for all of 2025!

Let’s reflect for a second though. What would it look like if we began to think in this way? We do not know Christ fully, no doubt. But whatever happened before (sin, mistakes, failures, shortcomings, disappointments), we forget because of the precious blood of Christ and the forgiveness this affords and our whole motivation and goal moving forward is to know Jesus more, in everything that we do… What a potent statement!

This was Paul’s mindset, which then allowed him to say some of the things he closed the Philippian letter with, like, “I have learned to be content in all things…” (Phil. 4:11). Imagine the peace in your soul if you could truly utter that statement like Paul. How can we begin to think this way? How can we begin to know Christ, see Christ, and experience Christ in everything we do to bring this sort of life to our being?

Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places

Eugene Peterson, a pastor, author, and theologian wrote a spiritual theology book about how, if you’re looking, you can see Jesus everywhere because everything is trying to point to him (Jn. 5:39-40). Christianity is not a set of compartmentalized practices; Christ is in “ten thousand places” – you just have to have your eyes, your heart, and your ears open to Him. 

What if this year we combined Paul’s verse about straining and striving to know Christ more with Eugene’s poetic concept that Jesus is everywhere if we look for Him? And what if we simply said, “How is Jesus ‘at play’ in every area of my life?”

How is This a Resolution?

Let’s pass our typical New Year’s resolutions through this framework.  How is Jesus in my fitness goals (1 Tim. 4:12)? Can I sense that I’m honoring Him by taking care of my body (1 Co. 6:19-20)? Do I therefore experience Him as I work out? Converse with him? See people in the gym as image bearers and go to the gym “with Jesus?” Or am I just working out? If I’m just getting healthy, there’s nothing wrong with that. It is still in some senses godly. But what if you sought to see Christ more in this and literally tried to “find” Jesus in your fitness goals?

As you get out of debt, do you see this as worshipful to God (Prov. 22:7)? Do I see that I can now be more generous with my finances (2 Co. 8-9) or save up for my children to have something (Prov. 13:22)? Am I trying to do more devotions because I have to, or because I get to know Christ more? What if Jesus is all around us… we just have to sense him?

Okay, So Now What?

My encouragement is very simple: Christ is living, active, at work, and all around you. Ask the Spirit to open up your spiritual eyes and make 2025 a year where you strive to know Christ more because you aim to see Him interacting in everything you do. Be quicker to ask “Where is Jesus?” in whatever situation you’re in and my guess is you’ll experience Him more regularly, giving you what you’re truly looking for: eternal life.