3 Simple ‘Next Steps’ You Can Take This Year

Sometimes we just need to get back to the basics, and there’s no better time than a brand new year to remember to keep things simple. John the Baptist – a biological cousin and spiritual forerunner of Jesus – preached a message that was about as basic as it gets, and still, multitudes of people in the first-century were drawn to it.

What do people find so compelling about simple, straightforward teaching like John’s? I think it has something to do with the fact that, in this world, it’s so easy to get distracted by work, politics, religion, and other surface-level entanglements that we forsake the foundations on which we once stood. Eventually, the distractions – along with the divisions and disruptions they bring – wear us out and expose a deeper longing within us.

In our heart of hearts, we all crave simplicity and clarity. 

John the Baptist had no problem being simple and clear; he had one message for the world: Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near (Matthew 3:2). Preachers these days like to start our sermons off with something lighthearted and funny. John, on the other hand, preferred to cut to the chase with opening lines like this one from his message in Luke 3:

Can you imagine going to great lengths to get yourself to church on a Sunday morning, only to have the preacher stand up and call you a snake right out of the gate? Would you ever go back to that church again?

You might be inclined to say no.
Who wants to be brow-beaten on a Sunday morning when you could be having a nice brunch instead? 

But there’s something deeply refreshing about the cold, hard truth. That’s why, even as John called them a bunch of snakes, the people couldn’t get enough of his preaching. Whether we’re talking about 1st Century Judeans or 21st Century Houstonians, there’s something in all of us that wants to be called out. 

After branding the people a brood of vipers, John challenged them all to repent and be baptized. Repentance is always simple, but it’s never easy. It represents a 180-degree turnaround – not just in our actions and behaviors, but in our attitude and perspective as well. Simply put, repentance is a rejection of self-reliance in favor of a total dependence on God. 

When John finished preaching, three distinct groups of people approached him with the same, simple question: “What should we do?”

You see, whenever people get a little taste of simple clarity, they quickly develop an appetite for more. Now that John had told them to repent, they wanted to know, in practical terms, how their lives needed to change. John, of course, was more than willing to provide them with simple next steps that are as applicable to us today as they were two millennia ago.

1. Be generous.

“The crowd” represented the majority of the people who heard John’s message that day. Among the crowd were the ordinary, everyday men, women, and children who struggled with the same things most of us struggle with these days: putting food on the table, getting (or staying) married, raising decent kids, and making sense of suffering. It would have been easy for John to let this middle-class group off the hook; instead, he reminded them of a simple truth that we all learned way back in Kindergarten: sharing is caring, so be generous with what you have! 

Throughout both the Old and New Testaments, generosity lies near to the heart of God. Proverbs 14:31 says, “Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors Him,” and Jesus himself said, “Give, and it will be given to you…” (Luke 6:38).

Taken out of context, passages like these can be used to advance the argument that Christians give in order to receive, as though generosity is somehow a means to our own prosperity. While the Bible is clear that those who give more of what they have will receive more of what they want, self-interest shouldn’t be what drives our charity.

More than anything else, what motivates us to be generous toward others is the shocking awareness of how generous God has been toward us.

This year, whether it’s with your money, food, or time, or even your attention and concern, choose to be generous toward others with all the blessings that God has given you. How much of what you have should you give away? There’s no single formula that works for everyone. I’ll simply offer you a reminder that generosity, as an act of repentance, is a rejection of self-reliance in favor of total dependence on God, and total dependence is supposed to feel a little scary. As a mentor once told me: It’s not a sacrifice until it hurts a little. 

So let’s give ourselves away in 2023 until it’s scary and it hurts a little.

2. Be honest.

In 1st Century Judea, tax collectors were educated, connected, and notoriously wealthy, and yet, instead of applying their education and resources to further the interests of their own community, they chose to enrich themselves by working for the Roman Empire’s version of the IRS.

Needless to say, tax collectors didn’t get invited to many parties.

Imagine the tax collectors’ dilemma upon hearing John’s message. Surely they wondered if their repentance would require them to abandon their ethically compromised careers and scratch out a livelihood elsewhere. So, just like the crowd before them, the tax collectors asked John for a simple, practical next step.

What’s interesting here is that John didn’t tell them to stop collecting taxes; he just insisted that they stop cutting corners, taking advantage, scratching-and-clawing to get ahead. John didn’t say they can no longer be tax collectors; he simply called them to be tax collectors with integrity.

Maybe you find yourself working in an industry – or for a company – that doesn’t seem to align with biblical ideals. And maybe, as you’ve grown in faith, you’ve begun to wonder if true repentance and obedience would mean leaving your career behind.

That could very well be the case for some people, but I would guess they represent a small minority. For most believers, repentance won’t mean you have to stop being a financial advisor, a business executive, or even a lawyer. It simply means that God is calling you to be a transparent financial advisor, a truthful business executive, and an honest lawyer.

(And yes, there is such a thing!)

3. Be content.

In addition to the crowd of everyday people and the gaggle of tax collectors, a third group emerged from John’s congregation that day: Roman soldiers. We don’t know how many were in attendance, or why they were there (scholars hypothesize that they were on assignment to ensure that John’s religious revival didn’t become a political revolution), but it’s clear that they took what they heard to heart. Like so many others who heard John’s message, these warriors wanted to know more about the practical implications of repentance and reliance on God.

Again, John didn’t tell them to stop working for the “evil Empire.” Instead, he saw through their weapons and body armor, straight to their hearts, and he encouraged them to stop abusing their power by financially extorting people or falsely accusing them, and by giving themselves over to a sense of entitlement and self-pity as far as their compensation was concerned.

Most of us would have no trouble with John’s first two teachings: we don’t typically make a habit of extorting and falsely accusing people. However, many of us can relate to the soldiers’ discontented feelings about their pay.

No matter how good my life gets, my capacity for complaining never ceases to amaze. Ironically, it seems to me that the better my circumstances become, the more I tend to grumble.

Geo and I have been hosting my in-laws from Ecuador for the past couple of weeks. It’s their fifth time in Texas, and every time they visit The Great State, they might as well be in heaven. They can’t get enough of our delicious food, our technology, our stores, and even our impressive highway system. American families are relatively safe, our government is relatively stable, and our streets are relatively clean. Everything about life here amazes them.

But what is most remarkable about America to my in-laws is how oblivious and joyless most Americans are, especially considering the incredible blessings we’re all surrounded by every day.

America in 2023 is proof of how easily abundance without awareness can become an albatross of discontent. For Roman soldiers back then, and for we who live in the greatest state within the greatest nation the world has ever seen, John’s simple message resonates deeply. Contentment is an act of willful insistence that, no matter how much we have, God is enough for us. So when you’re faced with the choice between contentment and the never ending pursuit of more, choose to be content.

There you have it: three simple acts to set yourself up for a year of dynamic faith development: be generous, be honest, and be content.