A new year has dawned, and many are settling into their New Year’s resolutions (or not!). Realistically speaking, there is a special day coming up on January 9th called “Quitter’s Day.” This is the average day New Year’s resolutions are broken or abandoned altogether. The “newness” of a thing, often something that should or needs to be done, wears off and the tedious nature of the toil of the task is no longer overshadowed by the excitement of starting the journey.
When one is first baptized, there is excitement. The idea of dedicating oneself over to Christ and changing our will to match His should fill us with joy and enthusiasm for the future. The moment of coming out of the water after confessing Christ, and the joy of people surrounding a newly-baptized person fills one with zeal for Christ. It is the first step in a lifetime of dedication and learning more about Him. Eventually, the adrenaline wears off. The joy of a newly-baptized Christian fades into the continuation of life. Yes, a joy about Christ is always there, but the world starts to weather away the surface of that new creature. Jesus speaks directly about this in Matthew 7:24-27 with His parable about the men who built their houses on the sand and the rock, respectively. Once the storm came and the wind blew against the house, only one could withstand the onslaught of the world.
Maintaining that firm foundation is like keeping the New Year’s resolution — which is extremely hard. Statistically speaking, less than 10% of New Year’s resolutions are ever fulfilled. By Quitter’s Day, 60% have already been abandoned. How do we keep our foundation in the strong rock that is Christ and not allow our house to be on those shifting sands? The analogy breaks down out of context, but our foundation can change over time. God knows this, though. All can succumb to sin just as Peter did in Galatians 2:11-13: “But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.”
Even an apostle, one of Jesus’ closest friends, and by whose confession the entire church is built, can fall away and be condemned, having shifted that foundation from one of Christ to one of desiring the approval of others. What chance do mere mortals have when even one who had the Holy Spirit could fall away? Quitter’s Day looks increasingly like a prophecy of doom for all of us.
Psalm 193:13 says, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” God knows you and I inside and out. He knows our every burden. He knows our joy. He knows our weakness. He knows our greatest strength. He understands humanity better than humanity understands itself, and has a plan for us.
No one person is ever alone if they choose not to be. We face an onslaught of evil temptation daily, like a relentless and never-ending army intent upon our annihilation. Facing this evil alone is a fool’s errand. When New Year’s resolutions are successful, the American Psychological Association, after studying it in depth, has found common factors in that small percentage. The people who are successful are open about their successes and failures to their support group. When failures happen, and they do, they work on their problems as they can manage, and nobody beats themselves up, or gets beat up, but accepts the failure, remedies it, and moves onward. The Lord has the same plan in His church: “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load” (Galatians 6:1-5).
We will all fall. Nobody is perfect. The church is there to help each other. We worship our Lord together, and part of our walk with Christ is walking with one another. We bear each other’s burdens and share in each other’s joys. We see our common temptations and we help when we can, and we get help when we cannot. God has us figured out as social creatures, not atomized in the world, but together, building each other up in a spirit of gentleness because our goals are aligned: that we might bear our own load, and collectively find that pathway to heaven so we may worship Him and bask in His glory one day. Happy New Year!
Lance Byers