Every Janu-WORRY (as some people refer to it) we’re told it’s time for a reset. New year, new goals, new habits, new us. But spiritually, many of us step into the new year carrying the same questions, the same struggles, the same disappointments—and the same old selves. We pray, we hope, we try again, yet sometimes nothing feels new at all. 

So what does God actually expect of us? Is the new year a spiritual performance review (KPA) —do better, try harder, fix yourself? Or is God at work in ways we don’t immediately feel or see? What if newness doesn’t always look like change on the outside, but faithfulness on the inside? What if God isn’t holding a big stick over our failures, but gently leading us forward, even when we feel stuck?

In this podcast, New Year, Old Me, we explore the tension between our desire for transformation and the reality of living with unresolved struggles. We’ll talk honestly about faith when nothing feels fresh, hope when progress feels slow, and the grace of a God who meets us not as a “new us,” but as we really are—right here, right now.

Dan Barnard and Brett Bevan, both elders leading congregations in JoshGen, share some humour around expectations made of us AND the challenges of finding God in a new year with old challenges and the old me.