What does your New Year Reset look like?

As we begin a new year, the calendar resets, and with it, we attempt to reset. That looks different for everyone, whether it’s a resolution or goal to hit, something to bring to an end or to begin – it’s making space for good things.

But what does reset REALLY mean? We try to drive our resets on willpower and vibes alone, without ever addressing what lies beneath.

A new year doesn’t automatically change the person you’re going into that new year as.

There’s this part of the human condition where we all try to find something to anchor ourselves to, identify ourselves by, or navigate our lives by. There’s nothing wrong with that because it’s normal to have a reference point, whether big or small.

Our lives are completely shaped by a series of reference points – some good, some not, some accurate, some not, some that have a grip on us, or some we’ve been avoiding.

Reference points are completely normal, but the problem comes when we try to reset without moving our reference point.

And sometimes we try to reset without clearly defining our reference points. They become driven by the world around us, telling us what we should be referencing, or we draw them up based on past trauma or circumstances. The problem is that all of these things eventually tap out.

Wouldn’t it be great to build your life on something greater now, rather than when all of those other things have tapped themselves out? As we reset as a community of faith, how can we address that?

It’s All About Jesus

Such a simple phrase, but harder than it seems. For people beginning a new year, and for a church, it’s important to ask: Are our lives really all about Jesus?
What are the implications of it really being all about Jesus?

• Why should I care?
• Why should I make Jesus my reference point?
• Why should Jesus be my reset?

John 14
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Thomas is focused on where Jesus is going. He’s looking for something to do, rather than someone to encounter. Thomas has been following Jesus for a while, yet he’s still missing the point.

We can follow Jesus and still miss Jesus.

Look how Jesus answers the question – the way is not a path, it’s a person.

John 14
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
Jesus is the whole ballgame. He’s the only way to God, and if you know Jesus, you know God. That’s why it’s all about Jesus.

1. Jesus is the Way

Any path leads you to something and away from other things. You can’t take two paths, you can only take one. Jesus famously said, “You can’t serve two masters, you’ll love the one, and hate the other.”

2. Jesus is the Truth
What do you do with a reference point? You refer to it. You check your direction, path, and progress in relation to it. Different markers or maps might move or get changed; Jesus doesn’t. That’s why it’s so important to be intentional about coming back to Jesus.

3. Jesus is the Life
What energizes you? What makes you alive?

There’s the path you take, the way of following Jesus, there’s the truth of who you’re following, and then there’s the spirit, or life, which animates the truth. All three work together like the legs of a stool. If one is missing, the stool falls over.

In Luke 9, after Jesus sent the disciples out and after they saw the miracles, some people weren’t nice to them. “Do you want us to call down fire from heaven?” These are people who have followed Jesus, literally, but have missed the spirit of Jesus with devastating potential impact.

So, what does it look like if you’re on the path of Jesus?

You encounter Jesus. Jesus encounters you.

Jesus wants to intersect with every aspect of your life and transform it from death to life. Where is Jesus encountering you right now?

Things begin to change.

This isn’t just a spiritual experience, it’s a whole-life one. Not one-and-done, but ongoing. Maybe not your circumstances, but how you go through them.

• Jesus came to be Savior and Lord of all of us – priorities, emotions, pain, relationships, ambitions.
• What area of your life is on the table right now? We think transformation is this positive thing, and it is, but getting there can be painful.
• This is ongoing. Maybe that struggle, blind spot, that place you keep rationalizing and trying to avoid is where transformation needs to happen. It’s where you need a reset.

Join Jesus in His mission.

Mark 10:45
45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

We need to pour what Jesus has done for us out into the lives of others because, in doing so, they encounter Christ. Ask yourself, where am I being poured out right now? Maybe it’s your family or friends, but Jesus calls us to more. It should be your neighbors, people you’re serving, or faith-filled risks you’re taking. Maybe it’s the resources that God has given you – the time, talents, or treasure.

If you can clearly point to that in your life, maybe, as someone who wants to follow Jesus, you need a reset.

Pastor Michael Hoddy explains what our world could begin to look like if we took this reset seriously.