New Years’ is overrun with gurus and tips and hacks—advice is everywhere. We are only a set of resolutions away from becoming the person we’ve always wanted to be. But the true meaning of Christmas undermines all of this and could actually bring lasting change to our lives.
This is what is astonishing: Christmas is not advice; it is good news. It’s not a program to follow, it’s a news report of what has already been done. And that is how life ought to be.
Think about it.
“There is no ‘moral of the story’ to the nativity. The shepherds, the parents of Jesus, the wise men—are not being held up primarily as examples for us. These Gospel narratives are telling you not what you should do but what God has done.”
The message of Christmas is that you are loved, that you are not alone to fix yourself or solve your problems. You are not alone to setup new resolutions and try to achieve them.
Any life coach worth his salt will tell you that humans typically try to earn their identity. Christmas says the opposite.
Our achieving typically follows this progression: We do things, to get things, to be something.
Action—possession—identity.
We set goals to lose weight, to get a great body, to become fit or powerful or happy.
We begin with action, because we think we have to earn our way.
We resolve to read more, to possess knowledge, so we can become powerful, respected, or intelligent.
But Christmas turns this pattern on its head.
Christmas is the story of God doing the work we could never do, achieving everything we could not achieve, to give us the things we need, starting with our identity. That changes everything.
In this story, we are valued and renewed to work as God works, so we can have ultimate peace and fulfillment. It flips our typical process on its head.
Identity—action—possession.
You are loved.
So you can work hard.
So you can be fulfilled and happy.
We are someone, so we fulfill that calling, which leads to possessing things and happiness.
New Years resolutions that are not founded on your identity, of who you are called to be, are doomed to fail. But if we can accept the gift of identity, of the Deity giving us a name, calling us His own, then there is no limit to what we can accomplish, or the joy we can experience.
But in order to accept this gift, we have to surrender.
“There has never been a gift offered that makes you swallow your pride to the depths that the gift of Jesus Christ requires us to do.”
To accept this gift, we have to surrender to His story, admitting that we are not just broken, in need of fixing, but that we are dead in need of new life.
But there is something incredibly beautiful in this story. There is beauty here that swells the soul even more than the holiday of Christmas is capable of doing.
“When we find something to be beautiful, not just a duty, we dwell on it and stand before it because it is satisfying in itself.”
So what are your resolutions and goals? If they are not based on your identity, who you are called to be within the big story of life, then you can bet they will fail again, just like the previous years’.
Christmas is not advice; it is good news.