As a new year approaches, the noise gets louder.
Do more.
Fix more.
Plan better.
Be stronger.
Get it together.
Suddenly, the turning of the calendar feels less like an invitation and more like a performance review.
So before you step into another year feeling behind, pressured, or already tired, let me offer you something different.
Today I want to share five things you DON’T have to do this year.
1. You Don’t Have to Have It All Figured Out
You don’t need a perfectly mapped plan.
You don’t need clarity on every decision.
You don’t need to know how everything will turn out.
Faith has never required full understanding, only trust for the next step. So if you’re entering this year with unanswered questions, uncertainty, or a sense that things are still unfolding, welcome to the club. I’m doing the same thing and so are billions of other people. You’re not failing…you’re human. God often reveals direction as we move, not before we move. I can’t count the number of times God has told me, “Do this and then I’ll show you want to do next…” Until I obeyed the first thing, He gave me no clarity on the next thing.
You are allowed to begin the year without knowing everything that’s going to happen first. In fact, I can’t think of one year I’ve ever lived where I knew all that would happen and had everything figured out in advance. Every single day is a walk of faith. I promise you that every week I find myself saying, “I have no idea what God is doing about _________________. I can’t wait to see how He’s going to work this out.” Because I have no clue.
I also don’t have to be the smartest person in the room. I’m a pastor but I don’t need to know every answer to every question about the Bible. I don’t need to know everything about current events, or history, or anything out there. It’s okay to say I don’t know yet. without embarrassment or apology. Case in point, until yesterday, I didn’t even know Kiribati existed. (It’s a small, remote island country in the central Pacific Ocean.)And somehow, the world kept turning, Not knowing doesn’t make you dumb or unprepared. It makes you honest. I promise — people respect you even more when you tell them you don’t know. They appreciate your honestly. Telling them that earns trust.
Humility is not a weakness and that learning is a lifelong posture, not a prerequisite for being called or capable. This year, one of the most freeing things you can say is, “I don’t know yet.”
2. You Don’t Have to Copy Someone Else
One of the quiet pressures we carry, especially in leadership and ministry, is the belief that we should sound like someone else, lead like someone else, or build what someone else has already built. We watch what works for others. We admire their gifting, their reach, their confidence, their results. And before we realize it, comparison turns into imitation…not out of admiration, but out of fear that who we are isn’t enough.
God has never asked you to be a replica. He didn’t call you to mirror someone else’s voice, pace, or path. He called you to steward your wiring, your story, your influence. What works beautifully for one person may be completely wrong for another, and that doesn’t mean either is failing. Copying may feel safer, but it often costs us clarity and it definitely costs us our destiny! When we imitate instead of discern, we lose touch with what God is uniquely asking of us. Faithfulness doesn’t come from duplication — it comes from obedience.
This year, you’re allowed to stop measuring yourself against someone else’s assignment. You’re allowed to lead in a way that fits how God shaped you. You don’t need to borrow another person’s model to be effective. You need to trust that God knew what He was doing when He made you. There is freedom in being yourself, and fruitfulness often follows close behind.
3. You Don’t Have to Think the Same Thoughts
New seasons often require new thinking. You’re allowed to question old assumptions, challenge limiting beliefs, and ask God to renew your perspective. This year, transformation may come through thinking differently before doing differently. Just because a thought has been familiar doesn’t mean it has to be permanent.
A person who doesn’t think new thoughts is not growing.
Many of us carry thought patterns that formed in earlier seasons, during hardship, pressure, fear, or survival. They once served a purpose. They helped us cope, stay alert, or get through difficult moments. But seasons change, and what once protected us can eventually limit us.
Recently my therapist counseled me that I once believed certain things because I had to…in order to survive. It was to protect myself through seasons of pain but now that I’m not living there anymore, I don’t have to hold on to these thoughts. Right now I am working on letting go of those thoughts. It’s freeing but it’s difficult to root things out of you that you’ve believed for so long.
Scripture reminds us that transformation often begins not with changing our circumstances, but with renewing our minds. (Romans 12:2) That renewal isn’t instant, and it isn’t about forcing positivity. It’s about gently noticing which thoughts no longer align with truth, and choosing not to give them the final word.
This year, you’re allowed to interrupt the familiar narrative.
To question the voice that says, “This is just how it always goes.”
To replace fear with curiosity, and certainty with trust.
Thinking differently doesn’t mean denying reality. It means refusing to be ruled by old conclusions. God is still doing new things, and sometimes the first place they show up is in how we think.
You don’t have to change every thought overnight, but you can begin by choosing which ones deserve your attention. And that choice, as small as it may feel, can open the door to remarkable freedom.
4. You Don’t Have to Earn a Sabbath
This past week I heard something crazy. It was so nutso because it was said by a well known pastor who should know better…someone who surely knows the 10 commandments. He was speaking against everyone needing or taking a Sabbath each week, indicating that this is some type of trend or fad people are following. Not true. We are COMMANDED to honor the Sabbath every week. Everyone was commanded to do this, not just elderly folks, not just people who have been in ministry for decades. Not just married folks. Sabbath was never meant to be a reward for good behavior or hard work. It is a command, given by God for the good of all people. Scripture doesn’t say to rest once you deserve it, it says to rest because you were created to need it.
You don’t have to exhaust yourself to qualify. You don’t have to wait until everything is finished. You don’t have to prove your faithfulness by pushing through without rest.
Sabbath is not a luxury for the disciplined…it is a gift for the human. One day each week, set apart not because you earned it, but because God commanded it for your well-being. Rest is not a sign of weakness; it is an act of trust.
Don’t let anyone influence you with false teaching that Sabbath is only for well seasoned saints who have worked hard enough. Children need to be taught to Sabbath. The fact that a well known pastor has a viral social media post telling people that Sabbath is only something for hard working married people with kids, and that it is inappropriate for young people or unmarried people without kids to set up boundaries in their life to ensure they are getting a Sabbath day is simply ludicrous. If you hear this doo-doo, please don’t believe it. Observe a Sabbath every week. God tells you to. His way is the right way.
5. You Don’t Have to Start Over—You Can Start From Here
You don’t need a clean slate to move forward. Stop believing that lie! So many times I have resisted moving forward because I felt like it would require me starting from the beginning. NOT TRUE.
I remember one time I was on a 40 day Daniel Fast. I had been strict about it, and was fasting faithfully and seeking the Lord. And then one day I was at a meeting and a friend passed me a brownie (innocently – she had no idea I was fasting) and I mindlessly took it and started munching on it while we were talking. When I was almost done eating it I realized with horror that I was eating a brownie during my fast. I was like 20 days in. I got upset, jumped up to throw the rest of it in the trash can and started getting emotional and in a bit of anguish because I believed I had failed and now needed to reset the clock and start the 40 days all over again. As I was having a little meltdown over this my friend gently said, “No, no you don’t need to do that. God knows your heart. You did not do this on purpose, and the important thing is your motivation and intentions. You’ve got a pure heart in this…just pick up and go on from here like you never bit into that brownie.” I followed that advice and stopped being so legalistic about it.
So friend, you do not need to erase last year, fix everything, or reinvent your life to begin again. God is incredibly skilled at working with what already exists. He will work with your imperfect story (we all have them) unfinished journeys, and hearts that are still learning.
You’re not behind.
You’re not late.
You’re not disqualified.
You don’t need a dramatic reset, just a willingness to keep going.
As You Step Into This Year
So as this year turns, maybe the better question isn’t, “What do I need to fix?”
Maybe it’s, “What pressure can I finally release?”
You don’t have to know everything.
You don’t have to copy anyone else.
You don’t have to keep thinking the same thoughts.
You don’t have to earn rest.
You don’t have to start over.
This year doesn’t need a harder, more driven, more exhausted version of you.
It needs a freer one.
A more honest one.
A more rested one.
The kind of person who trusts God enough to move forward without proving anything first.
So take a deep breath.
Lay down what was never yours to carry.
And step into this new year…not performing, not striving, not scrambling, but trusting.
That’s not laziness.
That’s faith.
And it’s a very good way to begin.
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