We are officially a week into the new year.  My colleagues in the blogosphere have already hit the ground running. Michael Hyatt released a great podcast on “How To Develop More Discipline“, Cliff Ravenscraft released “Ain’t Nobody Got Time For That – Goals Vs Resolutions And More!“, Jeff Jones sets up an interesting challenge in “How to Have the Year You’ve Always Wanted“, Dan Miller even decided to engage his readers with a contest. Churches in my area have started a Daniel Fast, and various Bible reading initiatives, some reading through the entire Bible in a year, some covering just the gospels in the same time and some reading through the entire Bible live in the sanctuary in less than ten days!

The approaching new year has always caused me frustration. Resolutions, failure, rinse, repeat. 11 months later, repeat again. The approaching twelve months always seemed so huge… so overwhelming… so much bigger than me. The annus novus was my enemy. No… my nemesis.

But then something changed. I can’t pin down when it happened, but in the course of 2012 I discovered the power of the word “in.”

For years, I’ve had faith “in” Christ. I put my trust “in” His salvation. I believe “in” the promises found in Scripture.

But something was still off…

Then I read Colossians 1:26-27 like it was the first time:

For ages and ages this message was kept secret from everyone, but now it has been explained to God’s people. God did this because he wanted you Gentiles to understand his wonderful and glorious mystery. And the mystery is that Christ lives in you…

I realized that the important was “in” me. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside me. It almost sounds like children’s Sunday School, but that is a HUGE deal.

Since I’ve begun to embrace this reality, I have been confirmed in my calling, my father in the ministry has blessed me and broken chains off of me that I didn’t even know were there, and the doors have begun opening up for me in a way I have hardly dreamed.

I’m kicking off 2013 a little differently than I ever have before. I’ve made no resolutions. I have started doing some things that are resolution-like, but they are not built into resolutions. I have instead set particular and specific goals for the year. I’ve never done that before. The New Year isn’t the overwhelming thing it once was.  The months, weeks, days, hours and minutes that lay ahead are not the enemy; they are the canvas upon which I am called to paint this scene of His Masterpiece.

Another year? Gladly.