Resolved: Grow in Christ-likeness

I rarely make the typical resolutions like exercise more or lose weight, but began a practice some years ago of setting some spiritual goals for myself each January and making a commitment to the Lord to do my part to reach them. I think to myself "What goal does the Lord have for me this year?" and the answer is always "Be more like Him" So I set out to do a few things that I know will require me to trust Him more....things like forgiving a specific person I had been holding a grudge against, giving generously and joyfully to two additional charities, or sharing the gospel with at least two people each month. Hopefully at the end of every year as I stretch my faith in these specific ways, I look more like Christ than I did before. What higher goal is there?
Ultimately, holiness is the only Biblical personal goal for each of us. Truly holiness is what we must aspire to daily or else we're soon in a spiritual slouch that gives the enemy an easy opening to wreak havoc in and through our lives.
There's a terrific article in Leadership Journal by Gordon MacDonald on this topic. He says becoming a holy person doesn't just happen. It's an intentional thing that we must work at. The word holiness is not in style these days, but it's not gone out of the Lord's vocabulary. The article goes on to describe some people Gordon has known whom he considers "holy." I've met few people in my life that I would call "holy." And in my best moments I have never been close to reaching their level of piety. But it's a goal.
There is a great quote in the article by C.S. Lewis where he describes those who are rich in this underneath life - the life behind the outward performance that most of us are engaged in - the life that is directly connected to God and pleasing Him only. Holiness is not about a performance at all. It's the work in our inner life that cannot happen except in close communion with the Father.
Lewis writes "Nothing could be more foreign to the tone of Scripture than the language of those who describe a saint as a 'moral genius' or a 'spiritual genius' thus insinuating that his virtue or spirituality is 'creative' or 'original.' If I have read the New Testament aright, it leaves no room for 'creativeness' even in a modified or metaphorical sense. Our whole destiny seems to lie in the opposite direction, in being as little as possible ourselves, in acquiring a fragrance that is not our own but borrowed, in becoming clean mirrors filled with the image of a face that is not ours."
My goal this year is to be as little as possible so that He might be all that anyone sees when they look at me.