The Vision We Should Have For 2020

I don’t know if you are someone who keeps new year resolutions or if you laugh at the idea of them— But with the month of January coming to a close, I’ve been spending some time reflecting on goals set for the year ahead. A month into 2020 and many of us have already fallen short in some way to follow through on these resolutions we’ve carved into our journals. It’s funny how every year we can get inspired by this fresh motivation to set up goals (although only 8% of people who set new year resolutions actually follow through on them according to Times Tribune), yet we rarely question the motive behind the vision we cast.

“New year, new me!” or “This is going to be my year!” are just a couple common statements we hear people proclaiming as soon as January kicks off. With declarations like these I’d bother to question “Is our vision for 2020 self-centered or Christ-centered?” Do our goals show that we strive to build a name for ourselves or do we rest in the name of Jesus and seek to honor Him through our efforts?

Question our Motives

Maybe you have hopes of reading the Bible more, finishing a degree, serving your local church more, work hard for a promotion at work, lose some weight or tackle debt? Sounds like some great things we should encourage one another to move forward with in the year ahead! But what is the driving motivation behind accomplishing them?

Are we looking to study the Word out of our own motivations to grow as a person more? Maybe be seen wise in the eyes of our peers? Or are we hoping to draw closer to knowing and loving the Lord more through His Word?

Are we looking to exercise more so that we would look better in the eyes of others and take pride in our beauty? Or to strengthen the temple the Lord has given so that we may be of service to God and His people?

Are we looking to destroy our debt so we can save up and feel more financially secure as our own provider? Or that we may build up finances to be generous and bless others as Christ has done for us?

It’s important to set goals that God calls us to walk out daily, if we aren’t setting these goals and being intentional to steward the time given to us —are we truly living for the Lord? But when our motives behind these Godly goals are actually self-serving like the these few I personally have failed to follow through on, we aren’t really living for God, we are living for ourself.

Do we think we will find peace in checking these goals off the list? Do we take pride in our success and ignore the self-righteous heart behind our striving? Or do we see Christ rightly? Do we rest deeply in the finished work of the cross? Do we adore Him for the love He first showed us? I pray that instead of being self-consumed this next year that we would long to live out another year abiding in Christ and delighting in His commandments out of response to His pursuit of us.

Often we vision cast the year ahead from a position where we ask God to bless the will we make for ourself instead of humbly coming to the Lord and asking to let His will be done in the lives He’s given us. Let’s not forget- God is all knowing, has a greater perspective than our small understanding, and His way is the ultimate best way for us. When our world revolves around ourself instead of Christ, we miss out on the deep satisfying joy in Christ. We end up longing for what Christ provides but fail to find it in other things, goals, resolutions. Yet even after accomplishing them (or failing to as the 92% do every year) we keep on this hamster wheel cycle of striving to find peace in other things besides Christ.

Come Close to Christ

The truth is, we aren’t promised this year ahead. The recent loss of Kobe Bryant, his 13 year old daughter and several others present on that helicopter has been a harsh reality that this life can be so short and we don’t know when our time on earth will end. We also fail ourselves to think that we could possibly live our best life now on an earth that is tainted with sin, where sickness, suffering, and the unexpected are present. Living a narcissistic life will not bring eternal success but a fading happiness, it will end in loneliness and destruction.

Instead of having a vision for 2020 that is me focused, I beg us to fix our eyes on Christ. My challenge for us is to ask the Lord this year to change our desires to meet His. To be a people eager to have God purify our motives. To give Him the entire year ahead and allow Him to build what He wants through our lives so that He would get the praise. That through a life that is focused on Christ, people would see Christ and be changed by Him. That we would not gain the world while losing our soul but we would gain a contentment and closeness to Christ.

“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,” Philippians 3:8-10

In the book of Philippians the Apostle Paul talks about how he did everything right when it came to following the law before he met Christ and he fights against the notion of relying on our own actions for right standing. It’s not about checking off a list to feel right about ourselves. But living in response to Christ laying down His life on our behalf. Meeting Christ changes us and the Apostle Paul understood that. He knew that nothing compares to Christ and His goodness. He was ready to throw off anything that held him back from pursuing Christ daily and living a life poured out in sacrifice for Christ.

Maybe God will use this year to loosen the grip and lay down a self-righteous idol you’ve been clinging to for a false sense of peace. I pray that we would come depend upon His finished work instead of the state of our financial status, the weight on the scale, or ability to accomplish something career wise. May our vision for 2020 be Christ-centered, intentionally setting not just God honoring goals but ones that are fueled with a holy motivation to live for Christ and not ourself.