The Easiest (or Hardest?) New Year's Resolution

Love God, love others

Two of my favorite people in this whole world enjoying the latest snowfall!

My resolution for this new year sounds simple: I want to grow in my love for God and for other people. Fulfilling it likely won’t be so easy, but the effort will hopefully make me grow nevertheless.

Resolutions are often concrete and narrow: People decide to lose ten pounds, get fit, climb a really tall mountain, run a marathon, get married, have a baby, write a book, read x number of books, switch careers—you get the idea. Perhaps you’ve made these resolutions before. There is nothing necessarily wrong with them, to be clear—these are appropriate and worthy goals at different points in many individuals' lives. Except, we are not just individuals, contrary to what contemporary America repeats to us all—and loudly.

It is appropriate to remember when setting goals for the new year that we do not belong to ourselves. If we set goals that only take account of us as individuals whose existence and resources are wholly our own, not only are we going to set ourselves up for failure in our resolutions, but we are ignoring our very purpose.

Take that common goal of getting fit and/or losing ten pounds and/or running a marathon or even just a 5K. How does one achieve this sort of goal in the new year? Yes, it will take your own persistence and effort and discipline. But also, this goal both depends on your family and community and affects them.

What do I mean? Well, your family’s support in various ways—verbal encouragement, help with preparing healthier meals, childcare while you’re in the gym or running—is integral for helping you achieve this goal. But also, a healthier you in turn is helpful for your family and community, because you will be better able to do everything that you do to take care of them. (Of course, taken to an extreme, self-care becomes an idol, but we’re not talking about that here.)

I think about this, because writers also really like to set ambitious goals for each year, but I think that this year I will refrain. I wrote a lot in 2024. Will 2025 be similarly productive? My selfish and productivity-loving heart would like it to be, but I also realize that I do not belong to myself. I started writing because I believed that I finally had something worth saying to encourage the church. Plus, writing gives me joy. I will keep writing as long as both of these apply—AND as long as my writing doesn’t negatively affect my family. (And I did write a new book in 2024, which will come out from Zondervan Academic in fall 2025—stay tuned! The title is Christians Reading Classics)

There are limits to the things to which I can say yes. Because I do not belong to myself. And this is so incredibly liberating! (I recommend this beautiful book about our limits and why, theologically, they are a blessing rather than a curse: Kelly Kapic, You’re Only Human: How Your Limits Reflect God’s Design and Why That’s a Good Thing)

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So I just told you in detail why I’m not making a traditional New Year’s resolution, one that sets concrete productivity goals that are measurable—or S.M.A.R.T. in cringy corporate or academic speak. But how will I fulfill the two goals that I am setting forth for this year—to grow in my love for God and for other people?

For the first one, I would like to do something this year that I have never done: read the entire Bible in one year. We do a lot of Bible reading as a family, and I’ve read all of the books of the Bible at one point or another—but never all the way through in one year. But this is what so many people whose love for God is very clear recommend. So, I am going to follow this recommendation.

As for the second, there are two steps I will take. First, I would like to be more organized and thoughtful in my prayer life this year. A few years ago, after a wonderful class at church on prayer, I used the prayer card system—where I created index cards for various people I knew, and I would add prayers for each specific person or family to a designated card and would then have a tangible reminder of what to pray for. It was also neat to be able to mark answered prayers over time.

Friends, the prayer cards are back! If you would like me to pray for you regularly and have specific prayer requests, I would love to hear them. It’s impossible, after all, to not grow in love for those for whom we pray regularly and intentionally. If I know you in real life (and not just online), you may be in my card stack already.

And second, in addition to praying more and with greater intention, Dan and I would like to get back into hosting more. We did less outreach and hosting towards the end of 2024, and I think this was not good for us. Yes, life is always busy, but I think hosting and reaching out to friends has always somehow left us energized and encouraged rather than drained. Hospitality allows for conversations to happen that otherwise would never take place, because there is something special that happens when we share a meal at home with others. We grow in love for those with whom we regularly share meals and spend time in conversation. It just… happens.

I am reminded of just how much time during his earthly ministry Jesus spent in people’s homes, talking over a meal. Dan and I have certainly tried to follow this model before, but we want to be more purposeful about it in this new year.

Time is a gift. Relationships with others are a gift. Our relationship with God is an incredible, beautiful gift whose magnitude we cannot even fully fathom.

Happy New Year!

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Elsewhere this week: I wrote a New Year blog post at Current, previewing some of the things we’ll be featuring this year.