Choosing the Small Steps of a New Life

“And for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation. The old order has passed away; now everything is new!”

2 Corinthians 5:17

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A new year often carries a sense of expectation. We talk about fresh starts and new beginnings, about becoming who we hope to be. It can feel like a reset.

And yet many of us also know the quieter truth. We have stood at the edge of a new year before. We have made sincere promises and bold intentions, only to discover how hard it is to sustain them. Growth rarely happens the way we imagine it.

Sometimes the problem is not desire, but scale. We aim for the mountaintop without attending to the path.

We do not wake up one morning as Mother Teresa. We do not suddenly pray for hours, meditate with perfect focus, or live with unwavering peace. Spiritual formation does not happen in a single leap. It is built slowly, through ordinary, faithful practices.

This year, I am thinking less about jumping higher and more about building a ladder. Something steady. Something that can hold weight. Something that allows us to climb without pretending we can fly.

Over Christmas break, I watched the movie Spirited, a modern musical retelling of A Christmas Carol. The story centers on the idea that people are not changed by one dramatic moment alone, but by the hard, daily work of choosing to live differently.

One line from the film stayed with me. It was simple and almost offhand, but it felt deeply true:

“Maybe there’s no magical quick fix. Maybe you gotta put in the work. You gotta wake up each day, get out of bed and decide…”

That line resonated with me because it names something honest about the spiritual life. There is no shortcut to transformation. There is no single moment that replaces daily attention and intention. Faith is not formed in grand gestures alone, but in the choice to show up again today.

Spiritual growth often looks unimpressive from the outside. A few minutes of prayer instead of none. A single scripture read slowly. A pause before reacting. A breath of gratitude at the end of the day. These are not dramatic acts, but they are faithful ones. Over time, they shape us.

What forms us most is not our best intentions, but the environments and rhythms we return to. The pace we keep, the voices we listen to, and the habits we normalize quietly shape our souls. Formation is always happening. The question is "what we are being formed by?"

Choosing a spiritual life does not mean choosing perfection. It means choosing direction. It means turning, again and again, toward God even when the steps feel small or the progress hard to measure.

There is a word that keeps coming back to me as I think about this season: choose.

Each day we are given countless small decisions. Where we place our attention. How we respond to one another. Whether we make room for silence, prayer, and compassion. None of these choices alone make us spiritually mature, but together they shape the life we are living.

The good news is that this slow work does not depend on our perfection. We are not sustained by our consistency alone, but by God’s faithfulness meeting us again and again. Scripture names this daily renewal beautifully:

"YHWH’S favor is not exhausted, nor has God’s compassion failed. They rise up anew each morning, so great is God’s faithfulness."

Lamentations 3:22–23

New life is not rushed. It is renewed each morning. Sometimes all we can do is wake up, notice the mercy waiting for us, and take the next small step.

~Aaron Bostwick

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I would love to hear from you.

As you begin this new year, what is one small, faithful step you are choosing to take in your spiritual or personal life? Share with us in the comments as we walk this journey together.