Last week, I saw numerous posts with New Year’s resolutions, promises, and goals. One that I saw repeated often was the phrase, “This year, I need more of Jesus and Less of Me.” And, while I can see the appeal of such a phrase, I’d like to take a closer look at what that really means in a practical sense.

It’s easy enough to say a phrase like this and then proceed to live exactly the same as last year– struggling to be a “better” person, a more Christ-like person–and wondering why it isn’t working. But what if we’re missing the real transformation we need this year by misunderstanding what this phrase really means?

“More Jesus.” Actually, there is no “more” Jesus to be had than there already is. We can’t “get” more Jesus. We already have access to all the Grace, Power, and Peace that Jesus can offer. We have His Spirit to guide us, His example to follow, His indescribable sacrifice to motivate us, His promises to sustain us…what “more” are we looking for?

What we really mean by this phrase isn’t more of Jesus, but more TO Jesus and more FOR Jesus– more of our devotion, more of our obedience, more of our submission, more of our learning to lean on Him. We need to make more room for Him, more time for Him, more energy.

“Less Me.” In today’s world that revolves around identity and self-expression, this is where we lose non-believers, and many Christians, as well. The language of the New Testament– Jesus’ own words in fact! — call for us to die to ourselves and be raised to new life in Him. To many people, this seems like a very bad bargain. Matthew 16:25 puts it this way: “ For anyone who keeps his life for himself shall lose it; and anyone who loses his life for me shall find it again.” (The Living Bible) But look closely at this statement. Jesus is not promising death, but LIFE. (See also John 10:10) Jesus isn’t proposing to take away our life, but to help us find our best life. The word “life” in this passage can be translated as “life” or “soul.” When we think of “dying” to ourselves, or “losing” our life, we see only the negative. And death IS the ultimate negative. We don’t want to “die.” We don’t want to let go of this precious gift of life that we have been given. And it seems as though Jesus asks us to make a ridiculous trade– our life for His; our will for His; our self-control and determination for His mastery and domination.

Except that is Satan’s oldest and greatest lie! When Jesus says, “anyone who loses his life for me shall find it again,” He’s not promising a shadow life of slavery or degradation. God doesn’t want Holy zombies or robots, mindlessly and grudgingly following orders. He wants to bring us into the BEST and most abundant LIFE we can experience! But in order to experience any of it, we have to “get out of the way!” We have been given the ability to choose between right and wrong, between following God’s way or rebelling against it. It is when we believe the lie that God doesn’t love us, that He doesn’t have our best interests at heart, that He is withholding “something” from us– power, “fun,” happiness, achievement, etc.–that we lose our true life. We lose perspective, we lose joy, we lose peace, we lose our true purpose, we lost trust, and we lose hope. We get so worried that God will “cheat” us out of what we want in life, that we become enslaved to our own limitations and fears. I have hopes and dreams, but on my own, I will scheme, connive, compromise, and fall short of what I could become. I will let circumstances and bitterness determine my limits. I will betray all the promises of God for all the lies of the world. i may “win” the game of life, but in the end, I will still die. And I will die never knowing what I might have achieved WITH God, instead of in my own strength and wisdom.

So when we say, “Less Me,” what we really mean is less of my grasping, less of my whining, less of my demanding my own way, less of me shutting out others, less of me standing in opposition to God’s best for my life. ”More Jesus”– more trust in Him, more humbly walking WITH Him, instead of shaking my fists AT Him, actually results in “More Me”– not the ME that wants the world to revolve around only myself, but the Me that God created me to be! The Me that can only be shaped by a Master’s Hand. The created me bringing glory to and through the Creator!

So this year, instead of saying “More Jesus, Less Me,” maybe we should say, “Me Less, Jesus More!” Me less and less in the driver’s seat. Me less prideful and isolated. Me less prone to anger and bitterness. Me less in the center of my thoughts and plans for today. Jesus more in my daily talk. Jesus more in control of my emotions and reactions. Jesus more of my focus. Jesus more of my best and most trusted friend! And in the end, Me, More like Jesus made me!