To Guard Against & Be Guided Toward
An alternative to making New Year resolutions
Friends, thank you for a year of support with this Substack. Almost a year ago, I switched over to Substack from Medium. For 2025, I have a handful of goals for this publication and am excited to share with you all in the coming days. From the bottom of my heart, I want to say thank you for your support - whether financial or simply reading and being a part of the Becoming Dust community.
A couple of years ago, I started the New Year with a singular goal: wake up at 5am and go to the gym.
I was going to be that guy.
You know … that guy who gets shredded in a matter of weeks, alpha brain, has a clear mind at the top of the day because he tackled the hardest thing on his to-do list before 7am rolled around.
Peak masculinity.
I remember watching some productivity Youtubers a few months before and one of them had this line — “It’s not how you use your 9 to 5 that matters, but your 5 to 9 that matters more.”
“Oh, that’s SO good.” I thought.
Before you judge me and think this lasted for a week, I am happy to share that this lasted for three months. And then by the time April rolled around, I bailed, and joined the rest of my fellow Americans who hit the eject button on their resolutions.
All jokes aside, earlier this year, I began to implement what has been a decently contested idea in some theological circles. That idea or practice known as a Rule of Life. This article isn’t to get into the pros and cons, the good and bad, or whether a Rule of Life is necessary in the life of a believer or not. But I did want to share something I did find helpful for my life and apprenticeship to Jesus that I am carrying over into 2025, after giving it a test run in 2024.
I remember going through my notes from an “Art of Teaching” conference I went to in 2022 and came across some ideas from one of John Mark Comer’s teachings at the conference. He was discussing the idea of a Rule of Life for our churches and how preaching can help shape and mold that type of vision. In addition, he asked these two questions regarding a Rule of Life:
What are you guarding your church against?
What are you guiding your church toward?
It’s not a hard and fast rule, but to my understanding, it helps if the things to guard against and guide toward are two sides of the same coin. For my church plant, we have discussed these two questions and I think they are brilliant to ask of one’s congregation, whether in the context of a Rule of Life or not.
It’s these two questions that I implemented half way into 2024 not just for my church plant, but for my own life and it’s been a game changer.
So let me ask you, dear friend and reader, in 2025 …
What are 3 things to guard against?
What are 3 things to be guided toward?
Here are my 3:
To guard against
Comparing myself to other pastors
Relying on my own willpower to make God’s will happen
Being distracted from the work in front of me
To be guided toward
Reminders that I am a beloved child of God
A posture of dependence on the Lord (prayer & fasting)
Healthy daily, weekly, and monthly rhythms of rest and work
The beauty of asking these two questions falls in its flexibility. You can make actionable steps from your responses (in the context of a New Year, resolutions can emerge) or they can simply exist as guidelines and guard rails for your apprenticeship to Jesus Christ.
If you’re tired of making New Year’s resolutions or goals in your life, maybe you need to do what I had to do and take one or two steps back and ask yourself questions that shed light on your “why.”
Happy New Year friends - may the Lord bless you abundantly in 2025 and beyond!
Great stuff, sir!