"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD. "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."
~Jeremiah 29:11
For the past several years I have adopted a Word for the Year.
2014 - Pieces
2015 - Recklessly Abandoned
2016 - Exhale
2017 Intentional
Quite honestly, most of those years those words have seemed really difficult. They have become reminders though that words can have more depth and meaning then we ever imagine. In 2014, leaving a job meant feeling like my life was falling apart. It meant feelings of loss and abandonment. It quite literally felt like life as I knew it was falling apart.
The crazy thing about words though is that they create a story. When the end of 2015 came along I found myself once more leaving a job (which honestly seemed a little reckless), but this time it was with a sense of anticipation. We were expecting our second child and I was about half way through school. There was the offer of a volunteer position in the field I was studying and things looked promising.
2016 saw the birth of our second daughter and the releasing of various relationships, expectations and learning how to be a one income family.
As I have reflected on 2017, I find that once more the idea of being intentional has impacted my life in ways that I never expected. It meant that in a year that held a lot of change my approach to that changed was different. I wasn't just reacting to everything that was going on around me, I began to learn to slow down and be intentional about how I responded. Our family as a whole has tried to be more intentional about how we spend our resources. It has meant saying no to some good things so I could say yes to better things.
As we neared the end of 2017, I began my usual conversation with God. It seems like every year my monologue with God goes something like this...
"So, God, are we doing a Word again this year? I'm not really sure I want to. Last year sort of hurt. I'm not quite sure I liked the way that word played out. Could I maybe have a "happier" word if we are going to do this again?"
Inevitably it seems that when I start this questioning, God begins to show me just how much having a word that year changed me. I never hear that one word the same way. I have started to think of it a experiential living. We live our entire lives using words, but do we fully absorb their impact? We use words to argue our point in a debate. We use words to build up, but also belittle others. Even if you chose a word for the year, have you ever asked God to speak that word over your life for an entire year?
This year God indicated earlier that usual what my word for 2018 would be.
Hope.
I'll be honest.... I'm a little nervous about this word. I have learned over the past few years that there is always more to a word than we see on the surface. I think of hope as something clean and pure, a light at the end of the tunnel. I am a little afraid to have that definition challenged. What if I don't like what I learn about hope this year? But what if a new understanding of hope changes me?
And in that comes once again the reminder that words can be one dimensional or they can be experiential. To live a year allowing God to demonstrate the multi-dimensional facets of one single word or phrase is truly life changing.
Hope will change my life this year.
Will I like all of the ways that happens?
Probably not.
But will I have a deeper understanding of that one singular word Hope by the end of 2018?
Most Definitely!
The crazy thing about words though is that they create a story. When the end of 2015 came along I found myself once more leaving a job (which honestly seemed a little reckless), but this time it was with a sense of anticipation. We were expecting our second child and I was about half way through school. There was the offer of a volunteer position in the field I was studying and things looked promising.
2016 saw the birth of our second daughter and the releasing of various relationships, expectations and learning how to be a one income family.
As I have reflected on 2017, I find that once more the idea of being intentional has impacted my life in ways that I never expected. It meant that in a year that held a lot of change my approach to that changed was different. I wasn't just reacting to everything that was going on around me, I began to learn to slow down and be intentional about how I responded. Our family as a whole has tried to be more intentional about how we spend our resources. It has meant saying no to some good things so I could say yes to better things.
As we neared the end of 2017, I began my usual conversation with God. It seems like every year my monologue with God goes something like this...
"So, God, are we doing a Word again this year? I'm not really sure I want to. Last year sort of hurt. I'm not quite sure I liked the way that word played out. Could I maybe have a "happier" word if we are going to do this again?"
Inevitably it seems that when I start this questioning, God begins to show me just how much having a word that year changed me. I never hear that one word the same way. I have started to think of it a experiential living. We live our entire lives using words, but do we fully absorb their impact? We use words to argue our point in a debate. We use words to build up, but also belittle others. Even if you chose a word for the year, have you ever asked God to speak that word over your life for an entire year?
This year God indicated earlier that usual what my word for 2018 would be.
Hope.
I'll be honest.... I'm a little nervous about this word. I have learned over the past few years that there is always more to a word than we see on the surface. I think of hope as something clean and pure, a light at the end of the tunnel. I am a little afraid to have that definition challenged. What if I don't like what I learn about hope this year? But what if a new understanding of hope changes me?
And in that comes once again the reminder that words can be one dimensional or they can be experiential. To live a year allowing God to demonstrate the multi-dimensional facets of one single word or phrase is truly life changing.
Hope will change my life this year.
Will I like all of the ways that happens?
Probably not.
But will I have a deeper understanding of that one singular word Hope by the end of 2018?
Most Definitely!
