FollowBy Brian Sharpe
It’s 2019!!! Think about that for a moment. What is the earliest New Year’s you can remember? One of the most memorable for me was 2000. Leading up to Y2K, people were getting extra supplies so they could still function just in case all the computers stopped working. Tomina and I spent Y2K in Anchorage, Alaska, with my sister and her husband. On New Year’s Eve we were hanging out at a house that overlooked Anchorage. When midnight hit there was a brief second of anticipation, wondering if anything was going to happen. Ultimately, nothing happened. We had a fun night of playing cards in a beautiful house.
As we think about a new year starting, it should move us all to evaluate what matters and what we want to see happen in 2019. When we aim for nothing, we hit nothing. When we aim at something, it helps us see if we hit the bull’s-eye or not. What is our aim based on what we value most for 2019?
This makes me think of Paul in Philippians 3:7–14. I love this passage. I believe it is a passage that we should all read when we are evaluating what matters and what we want to aim for.
I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead! I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
I love this passage. Forgetting the past and looking forward is what everyone is trying to do during the new year. Paul was doing this close to the end of his life. He wanted to forget where he had been and all he had done and focus solely on reaching the end of the race and receiving the heavenly prize. Is that what we are aiming at? When we set our resolutions and goals, are they focused on who Christ desires us to be as we are conformed to His image? Or are they focused on bettering ourselves, our family, or financial situation? These focuses aren’t bad, but if they are not rooted in who Christ wants us to be, I believe they are missing the mark.
My prayer for us is that 2019 would be about the things of Christ, that we would aim for being conformed to the image of Christ, valuing what He values and aiming at what He has called us to aim at, which is to be a disciple who makes disciples. When we get to the end of 2019, may we look back and be able to count the number of people we have an influence toward Christ as we build His kingdom until He comes again.
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