A New Perspective On New Year’s Resolutions

From a lesson for the Virginia Caleb Corps group, January 3, 2022.

During the early part of any new year, there seem to be two types of people: those who make New Year’s resolutions and those who avoid them like they were last year’s challenges. I’ve been both types. I find it depends on how I was feeling at the end of the previous year and how my general outlook is going into the new one.

From the past year, 2021, I feel like a survivor: it was a year of building my ability to be resilient and overcome many personal challenges. Going into the new year, 2022, I’m feeling optimistic but haven’t decided about setting any resolutions or goals for the new year. Maybe it’s my perspective. Maybe like me, you need a different perspective on how to begin the new year.

Step 1: Beginning with Boundaries

We’re all familiar with the creation story in Genesis 1. God made His creation in six days, then rested on the seventh. It’s also a story of how God approaches the beginning of something new. Genesis 1:1-5 describes the start of the creation process with Day 1 of creation:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

Genesis 1:1-5 (NIV)

God’s Genesis Process

The Bible begins with God and a formless and empty void. Since this is the story of God and His creation, the scriptures offer no details or proof of God – His existence doesn’t require proof, only faith. We learn later in the Scriptures that God is not limited by time or space, or in the goodness of His core character trait, love.

God spends Day 1 of creation by separating light and darkness. Day 2 leads to separating the waters, and in Day 4 He creates day, night, and seasons. By separating these elements, God was limiting and setting boundaries on what He would create. Setting these limits was a key step in the creation process.

The “Do Not Do” List

Boundaries are an important part of beginning any process, including considering what you want to do in this new year. Warren Buffett, arguably an extremely sucessful businessman and investor, is said to have given some sage advice on setting priorities and goals. He said to begin by making a list of 25 things you want to accomplish. The next step is to circle the top 5; this is your “to do” list to focus on. He refers to the rest of the list, 20 other worthy items, as your “do not do” list. Warren Buffett knows that the secret of success is not only knowing what you want to accomplish, but also knowing what you don’t want to do that could distract you from completing your top goals. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you won’t do items on the “do not do” list, only that you’ll not let them distract you from what you need to get done.

Take some time to consider what you’d like to accomplish in 2022 and make a list of at least 20 good things you’d like to do this year. Then set boundaries and limits by choosing the top five or so. How will these limits help you focus on the most important items you want to accomplish?

Step 2: Creating Spaces

On Day 2 of creation, God creates “vaults” (NIV) or “expanses” (ESV), separating the waters of the earth. What exactly are these “vaults” / “expanses”?

And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

Genesis 1:6-8 (NIV)

Empty Spaces

Vaults or expanses are large empty spaces that can be used to contain any items within their limits. God created these to contain what He would create in the next day or step in the process.

Many times we struggle with with getting things done because our time is filled. For me, I often can’t start a new project because my physical space is already filled up. My office has piles of bills and other papers waiting to be filed, and boxes from projects I’ve taken on and other objects that distract me from my daily work. I also find that when I’m asked to do something, I wonder if I have enough energy to take on a new task.

Fewer Distractions

After setting your boundaries for 2022 by determining your top focus areas, the next step is to create space in your life by clearing out your time, looking at where you can open up your schedule to give you more energy, and maybe even get around to cleaning up your office or workspace. God’s main goal in His creation process was to create a beautiful world that showed His amazing love and grace to His ultimate creation, us. To do that, he set His boundaries, then created space for His creation. To accomplish our goals, we need to do this also.

What do you need to clear out of your life, schedule or office? What’s cluttering up your life that will distract you from accomplishing your goals this year? Take time to consider this before taking the next step that we learn from God’s creation process.

Step 3: Filling It Up

On Days 3 and 5, God begins to fill up the vaults or expanses that He created in Days 2 and 4. Since He had already set the boundaries and created the spaces, He was able to focus on filling them using His incredible creativity.

And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

Genesis 1:9-13

God’s Creative Creation

God created all types of vegetation. The description in Genesis doesn’t go into details, but think about what He created: fruit trees with oranges and apples, beautiful flowers like daisies and roses… but also weeds like dandelions and crabgrass. We may not enjoy dandelions on our lawn (or seeing my personal nemesis, dalisweed), but dandelions are amazing in that they are edible and can even be fermented into wine. That’s creativity.

God also created the animals on the land and all of the sea creatures. Consider the majestic horse or eagles, powerful elephants and whales and sleek, fast jaguars and cheetahs. He also created other animals, like the lazy sloths and pandas, oddities like octopuses and platypuses, and pests like mosquitos and spiders. However, you only need to look at a spider’s web to see the depth of creativity God used to fill up the spaces of His creation!

Your Creativity With God’s Help

Once you know your top 2022 priorities and clear out space for them, rely on God’s creativity to help you fill them up to meet your goals. We often have trouble starting with goals because we fear that we’ll fail, that our plan won’t work. It’s then that we need to remember we have a Creative Creator. We need to let God use His creativity and ours to fill our lives up in beautiful, majestic, powerful, and maybe even odd ways.

Final Thought: A Very Good Creation

We know the story of creation. It’s also a story of beginning, genesis, of God’s plan to pour out His love and grace for us.

On Day 6 of creation, God creates His final masterpiece, man.

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

Genesis 1:26-27, 31 (NIV)

After looking each day at His creation and saying it was “good” (Hebrew tob), God created man. He then looked at all that He created and said it was “very good” (Hebrew meod tob, or “exceedingly good”). God was very pleased with how He had filled the vaults/expanses that He made when He set the boundaries.

Why did God create all this, and what does it mean to us? God wanted to display His infinite love for us but limited it so that we could also see His grace. As we see later in the story in Genesis, we, His ultimate creation, chose to separate from Him. However, His love isn’t bounded by limits and can’t be contained in any vault. He filled the void created by sin by sending His Son to deliver the gift of grace. No matter how far from God we were, He provided a way to be near us through His love.

For beginning you new year, consider having the same perspective and following the same plan God used in the beginning:

• Set your goals and boundaries, and keep in mind your “do not do” list.
• Create space for God to work by clearing our your time, schedule, office, responsibilities, etc.
• Fill up your space and rely on God’s creativity as you put your plan into action.

In 2022, let’s remember God’s response to creation: it was very good. My prayer is that you’ll get to the end of the year, look back and see that 2022 was “very good”.