Have you heard the popular motivational saying, “To reach new levels, a ‘new you’ has to show up”?  We’ve all seen stats that show how “new you efforts” can fall flat on their faces :

• 43% abandon their fitness goals within the first month.
• 50% stop exercise programs within six months.
• 65% of dieters regain their lost weight within three years.

These don’t shock us anymore; we just accept this kind of “giving up” trend, and we can get cynical and dismiss as “hype” all the efforts to help us reach our goals.  This kind of cynicism can work its way into just about anything we as humans set out to do:  personal or family life, finances, relationships, work life, spiritual life, social involvement—you name it, we can start it and then give up on it.  So sometimes we turn into Eeyores and just surrender altogether, choosing to see nothing but every possible negative thing.  

This is not true of everybody, and we don’t have to follow such a path. The point isn’t that negative, terrible, or horrifying things don’t happen or exist, or that we can’t sometimes feel overwhelmed. So, I really do get it—talking about 'transformation' can sometimes feel uncaring, abstract, distant, elusive, or even like a Pollyanna-style, pie-in-the-sky fantasy (as humorously mocked in Monty Python's parody, 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life'). Even so, this can become an excuse for wallowing in the mud. There’s another side to this that we often don’t want to hear and won’t even stop to consider: namely, that in most circumstances, we almost always have choices about what to focus on and what step(s) to take next. We might not like those choices, but we almost always have them.  

On some level, all of us want a new me, a new life, a new sense of purpose, a new . . . something. Sometimes that means simply rearranging the living room; and sometimes it means a whole lot more—as in a crisis.  All of us have given up on one thing or another at one time or another.    

So, I won't offer a one-size-fits-all solution, or give random or devotional thoughts, or use the Bible (as so often happens) as the big “self-help book from the sky” cherry-picking proof texts hither and yon to build an artificial "biblical doctrine of transformation" or "overcoming adversity."   Instead, I'll be pointing contextually to some solid and transformative ways biblical texts address the question of "the new you." 

Biblical texts offer something very real about this—something that connects deeply with our lived experience.

Biblical Texts (Part 1)

What do biblical texts actually say about the new you? 

First of all, wanting a new you is not a bad or shallow or "hypey" thing.  The phrase “a new you” is actually found in the Bible.  It shows up literally as, "a new person, a new being, a new one"—but this directly means "a new self" or "a new you."

Eph 4:24:  “Put on the new you, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.”

Col. 3:10:  “Put on the new you, that “you” that’s continually renewed in coming to know its creator.

It is almost a crime to merely quote these side by side and then simply run off.  Look first at the first one.  This is not merely some little side comment made off the cuff that just happens to mention the "new you" (v. 24 "the new 'self'").  There is a sharp contrast with the "old you."  Everything about this text is mapping out how you latch onto, build, support, and nurture "the new you":  this isn't just about becoming "holier than thou";  this is about how you make decisions to live one step at a time: 

Eph 4:20-24

I double-dog dare you.  Print that out, put it on your mirror, and read it every day for 10 days, once every morning, and once every night.   Every time you read it, look yourself in your own eyes and ask yourself, "Am I getting rid of, am I daily renewing, and am I clothing myself with the things in this text?"  And then, at the end of 10 days, ask yourself, "Did this make a difference for me for 'the real things' of my life?  Or was it merely about feeling goosebumps?"     

For backup, go read Col 2:20-3:17.  Then ask, "Is this simply talking about some invisible, non-real, theoretical Christian philosophy? Or could this absolutely change everything about my life?"  You answer it!

A New You

What kind of “new you” are you looking for?  If you only want a new you that is skin deep, you are free to pursue that.  But if you want a new you that starts at the deepest parts of you and works its way out, that is what biblical texts offer you, shaping every visible part of your life.

Ah, but now I can just hear someone say, “Yes, yes, I know, I know—‘the new spiritual me!’  But I don't need a churchy answer.  A "just-trust-Jesus-and-your-problems-will-vanish" answer.  What I need is a more urgent, a more real, a more visible, a more actual ‘new me.’  One that helps me address the crises in my life, or my relationships problems, or my school or work issues, or my health concerns or physical well being.  One that I can see in the mirror and feel and get to know!”  One that others can say, “I can see or tell a difference in you!”  

Well, actually, I agree with you.  That’s precisely why I'm not offering a churchy answer and why I'm pointing to a deep experience with biblical texts.  As long as we don’t know the relationship between the inner spiritual me, and the external “in the mirror” me, then we will never get it.  It is God working on the inner spiritual me that produces the external me.  The transformation God initiates within us isn’t invisible—it inevitably shows up in how we live and act, how we make decisions, how we approach problems and struggles, and even in how others see us.

Next Post

In the next post, I’ll look at some more biblical texts, and I'll start to go deeper into the idea of transformation in biblical texts.  But for now I’ll leave you with this:  If the “real you” is only skin deep and primarily concerned with mirror images, then you are only seeing things backwards, and you have little or no chance of become anything more than the “you” you already are.  A truly new you cries out for more.

Gary D. Collier
Director, IABC