I know this sounds harsh, but you’ve probably got no shot at being better in 2014, especially if you fall for the “new year, new you” lie that circulates every year around this time. Now, I do think it’s possible – and critical – that we work toward and expect positive changes in our lives, but here are 4 reasons why that popular slogan is total crap.
1. The new year doesn’t last. Basically, the slogan implies that your hope for being a new person is tied into the beginning of the new year. The obvious problem with that is the fact that the “new” of the new year is actually only 1 day, even though we could probably stretch it out to one month. But don’t kid yourself, once February rolls around, the new year can start to feel old in a hurry. And that leads us to the second reason this is a myth that only sounds good when Dr. Oz says it.
2. It means we get worse as the year goes on. Think about it. Why is it that we hear these same four words EVERY YEAR? It’s because the “new year, new you” mantra implies that we need a new us every January because we all tend to do worse as the year progresses. Are you depressed yet? I am. But I haven’t even written the really depressing stuff yet. Just consider number 3.
3. A new start doesn’t change who you are. I know you hate me right now, because none of us want to believe that what I just wrote is true, and yet all of us know that it is. This is why bad teams lose even though they continue to start new games. Starting over didn’t suddenly change the lack of talent or coaching on that team. They were a bad team at the end of the last game, and they’re still a bad team at the start of the next one. Hope may spring eternal, but reality is always right there to kill it, and the reality is that new beginnings feel good, but it won’t take long until the old habits start to pop right back up. And the blame for that cycle of failure can usually be laid at the feet of reason number 4.
4. The new you is really just the old you trying harder, and usually you’re trying harder to do the old things better. As Albert Einstein said, that’s just insanity. And yet, every January you and I buy into the myth that just because it’s a new year and we have a new start, somehow THIS time will be different. We’ll try harder to not smoke or not eat those incredible desserts that are still hanging around from the holidays (you know, the ones you’re probably eating as you read this). This time we’ll keep going to the gym, keep running, keep reading the Bible and keep journaling. But if we’re gut-wrenching honest with ourselves, it’s just the old you with a new resolve, and that usually lasts long enough to hit the same old roadblocks that the old you hit during the last “new year, new you” campaign. It just doesn’t work.
Of course, I wouldn’t be writing this if I didn’t actually think it was possible for you to have a new you and for me to have a new me. It is. But if you really want a new you, it’s going to take a lot more than a new year. It actually requires a new King.
2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” It’s a pretty snazzy verse that a lot of people quote this time of year, but what makes this promise different than the “new year, new you” crap is what follows in the next verses. This is “from God” who was “reconciling the world to himself in Christ” by making “him (Jesus) who had no sin be sin for us” so that we might become the new creations we all desire to be.
Sin gets a really bad rap, because we feel small when people say it. It makes us feel like we’ve failed, like we somehow don’t measure up and we aren’t as good as we think we are. Which is all true, and is all why trying harder in the new year to look, feel, act and be new ultimately fails. As long as WE are the kings, we’ll never change.
It isn’t much different for us than it is for the sad people that start out each season on The Biggest Loser. All of them want to lose weight. None of them want to die in their thirties and leave behind grieving kids. And yet none of them are healthy, and all of them are getting more and more unhealthy the longer they live. But something changes on the ranch (for most of them), and it’s actually a very simple concept: they give up the control of their lives to a trainer.
The trainer tells them what to eat, what to drink, when to exercise and how to exercise. Bringing it back to the spiritual, they stop trying to convince the old king (themselves) to do new things and they allow a new king (the trainers) to rule their lives. They stop calling the shots for themselves and admit that they’ve failed and need a stronger king to lead them. And something about that leads them to success, and by the finale they not only look new, but so many of them actually ARE new.
They think new thoughts. They practice new habits. They make new choices. And it all started with a new king.
How much more could making Jesus the new King of our lives change everything about us? I say it can make all the difference by simply changing one simple word.
This year, why not make the mantra a “new King, new you.”
Allowing a new King to call the shots might actually give you and me a shot.
