It’s January. Cue the articles, memes, advertisements and posts on New Year’s resolutions and how to do better this year. And for good reason. Every time a new year comes around, many people make resolutions for positive changes in their life. But nearly just as many fail.
According to a 2023 Forbes study,1
86% of those who made a New Year’s resolution expected lasting results beyond the new year.
Only 6% succeeded in keeping their resolution all year.
Over 50% gave up by the end of March.
Why is it so hard to make the changes we want?
Advances in neuroscience have given us some clues. And when we add some good theology to the mix, we gain an even clearer view of how God partners with us to bring us the deepest type of transformation for which our hearts long.
Let’s start with a little neuroscience. Our brains are made up of billions of tiny nerve cells called neurons. Neurons connect with one another and send electrical signals back and forth, enabling various thoughts and actions.
Think of your brain as a dense forest of these neurons. Some areas do not have connections, and so the forest is thick and difficult to walk through. But there are also some well-worn, easy-to-travel paths through the woods. These paths represent thoughts and actions that have become habitual over time. You’ve done them over and over and over again—so many times that they have become easy, maybe even enjoyable.
For example, you now can speak with ease, but it wasn’t always that way. When you first tried to talk, the pathway between those language neurons in your brain was like a dense forest. But as you tried to travel that path again and again, it got easier. The pathway became bigger and wider and smoother. Now, the electrical currents stroll freely and easily through that part of the forest, and you can talk.
A more recent discovery is that this same process of brain growth and adaptation doesn’t stop when we get to adulthood. Though childhood is a period of intense growth and extra malleable brains (that’s why it’s easier to learn a language or an instrument as a child than as an adult), our brains continue to change, develop, and strengthen neural pathways throughout our whole lives. So, even as adults, the more we think or do something, the easier it gets to think or do it again. And the harder it gets to do otherwise.
This is great news for our good habits. It’s wonderful to have well-worn patterns of thought and action that align with our noblest aspirations and the deepest truths about God and ourselves.
But not all of our neural pathways were shaped by goodness, truth, and beauty. Some have been formed and nurtured over time by hurtful experiences of life, or by subtle lies we’ve believed (even subconsciously), or by feeding our less-than-holy desires. In short, we have some bad habits, and they’re hard to break—like forging a new path through the woods.
Back to some good news though.
First, we have some degree of control over which pathways of thought and action we strengthen and which we leave behind. Many self-help books are actually quite helpful indeed, because they teach ways to form new habits and re-wire our brains. Let’s take all the good and practical advice we can get.
But the even greater news is this: God does not leave it solely up to us to become better versions of ourselves. Not only does that not work, it’s also a heresy called Pelagianism that the Church squashed over 1500 years ago. Yet it has a persnickety way of hanging around.
God always makes the first move, meets us right where we are, loves us unconditionally, and offers us His mercy, His help, His very self. God is all about the business of making us into free, holy, joyful creatures who radiate more and more His boundless goodness to the world. He does the heaviest lifting, but He will not do any of this without our consent. We must play our part.
So what is our part?
Keep showing up and leaning into God over and over and over again. Here are three broad ways God has always called His people to show up and lean in.
Teachings. In every age there are competing visions of what is true and what makes for “the good life.” The neural pathways forged in us by culture and by sin make these competing visions very compelling at times. As Christians, let’s keep showing up to Scripture, Church teaching, Saints, and Christ-centered mentors to forge stronger neural pathways for believing and desiring what God has revealed above all else.
Practices. Teachings alone are not enough. We know many truths in our heads that we fail to live out in our bodies or grasp very deeply in our hearts. Actions shape our minds and hearts at least as much as teachings do—maybe more. So let’s keep showing up to the practices and actions that Jesus Himself lived and taught us to live: prayer, fasting, communal worship, sabbath, celebration, serving the poor, befriending the outcast, etc.
Community. Teachings and practices are essential, but we were never meant to live this kind of life alone. Jesus’ call to follow Him is always a call into a family, a Church, a people. So let’s keep showing up to authentic community, vulnerable discussion, and shared prayer with a few other Christians because no one follows Jesus alone.
Yes, change is difficult. Probably one of the hardest things around. But the good news is, it’s not impossible. We can hack through that forest and forge new neural pathways, little by little. With good teaching, repeated practices, the support of community, and a whole lot of God’s grace, we can not only take on a worthwhile January resolution or two, but also slowly become the new creation we’re invited to be in Christ Jesus.
1 https://www.forbes.com/health/mind/new-years-resolutions-statistics/
