In This New Year, Who Do You Want To Be?

Yep, it's a new year. Time for all those resolutions, goals, start-overs and new beginnings. Spoiler alert--most of them will fail. They'll fail for a variety of reasons, but one big one is that they are not who we are, and won't help us be who we want to be.

If I resolve to climb Mt Everest this year, I'm going to fail. I don't like heights, I don't like the idea of traveling, I hate being cold, and I really have no interest in devoting my life to risking my life. That's just not who I am, nor who I want to be.

The same goes for resolving to spend hundreds of hours this year training to run a marathon. It's not that running a marathon is bad, it's just not me right now. I don't want to take the time, put in the effort, and bear the inevitable aches and pains. Some day maybe, but today that's not who I am or even who I want to be.

See what I'm saying? If I set goals that don't match who I am, or even who I want to be--who I really want to be, I'm nearly certain to fail. Especially if those goals are at all worthwhile.

Most things in this life that are worthwhile don't come easy. That's a fact. They take work, effort, persistence, and often a significant amount of pain--of one kind or another. I'm not going to go through that unless I have a really good reason, unless it's going to help me be who I want to be.

So that begs the question, "Who do I want to be?"

To answer that, I have to know who I am today; and honestly, that's not as easy as one may think.

Who I am encompasses a lot. I'm a husband. A father. A son. An uncle, a nephew, cousin. A healthcare worker. A friend. A member of a church. I'm a man, an American, a hunter and fisherman. I enjoy the outdoors and being active, but also reading and doing puzzles. I'm patient with things but not with people. I'm no genius but I'm not totally dense. Most importantly, I am a Christian.

Being a Christian is the most important thing because it means that I am a son of God. I have been called into His family, accepted into His presence not because of those things about me I listed above, but because of Jesus Christ. I am forgiven of my sins, and I am empowered by God to overcome this life for His purposes. I am saved. I am redeemed, and that's what really matters.

Now, could I just stop there and be comfortable knowing that I have the most important part of my identity figured out? I have accepted Jesus. I am saved. Nothing else really matters. Does it?

Yes, it does.

It really, really does.

Because you see, being a Christian means that I am a follower of Jesus. God has called me to be His son, and I want to be. I want to please my Father. I want to follow in the footsteps of my "Big Brother." I want to be like Christ, and truth be told, in so many ways I am not.

And so, there we are.

Who do I want to be? I want to be like Christ. I want to be a son who will please my Father, who will make Him proud. I want to be not just a good guy, but a real man. A true disciple. A devoted follower.

So this year, that's what I resolve. I resolve to become more like the One I follow. What that means exactly will be revealed day by day, hour by hour. It will take work. It will require persistence. It will sometimes result in pain, but I'm willing. I'm willing and I'm ready because I know who I am and I know who I want to be.

This is my first step.

What's yours?