January 6, 2012 by Allen Coleman 0 comments

Posted in: Identity

Well, it's about that time of the year. You know...the one where we resolve to be a better person, lose a little weight and live a little more. New beginnings and do-overs are hard-wired deep into the human DNA. However, we all know that a New Year's resolution is nothing more than temporary therapy, at best. It's how we console ourselves having fallen short the year before. So are we destined to repeat this cycle year after year? And why does it matter so much to us? It matters because the Father wrote it on our hearts:

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.  -Colossians 2:16-17

What Paul is saying is that during this festival we call New Year, we experience a mere shadow of reality. These shadows will never fully satisfy our soul because they lack the substance to do so. The ol' adage "chasing your shadow" should make more sense now. Paul is telling us that what we are actually looking for, is substance. And that, belongs to Jesus:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.   -2 Corinthians 5:17

Let me explain what's happening. On New Year's Eve we countdown until the ball drops in Times Square. When the clock strikes midnight, we celebrate the old has gone and the new has come. And with it, we hope it holds promise for new life:

• New body
• New relationship
• New lifestyle
• New job
• New decisions

Not that any of these things are intrinsically wrong, believe me, I could join a gym or two. However, we must discern what is at that center of our motivation. If it is worship, then each of these things can glorify the God who gives them. But often, we are trying to find peace, joy and justifcation in created things, rather than the creator God (Romans 1:25). And so to make this effectual, we set goals and make resolutions to the god of self-improvement. We fail to see that this ritual is a shadow and it will do what shadows do...fade. We will never get to the end of a year content with who we are and what we've done.

Only the substance, which is Christ, can bear the weight of what God has written on our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Until we acknowledge what Christ has done, and what we are hopelessley incapable of doing (Romans 7:15), we will continue to chase shadows that fall short of the substance we desperately need.