New year. New word. I was waffling about choosing a word this year. Wasn’t sure I’d get one. Maybe it was more that I didn’t want to sit still long enough to hear it. It was tempting to run from it.
The whole word thing for me is more of an exercise in seeing from a new perspective. It is not a religious thing or Christian thing at all. So not choosing to do this doesn’t make anyone less of a lover of Jesus. Let’s just be clear on that. I read about it on a blog a few years back and it fascinated me at the time. It took a couple of years to actually act on it.
I’m a word person. I find them intriguing. I found filtering life through the word BRAVE last year gave me a whole new way of looking at life. So I’m curious about doing it again.
I don’t just choose a random word. I look at where I am in my journey and what themes have been bouncing around my head, in my life. I ask God what word is for me and then Listen. That’s it. There is no magical formula. You might go about it in a different way altogether. That’s okay.
A week ago, I finally started to listen. A few words came to mind. Create. Dangerous. Change. Change was resonating the most. A few things I‘ve read lately and watched, really got me thinking that I need to be the change. I’m not talking about playing God. Or that I have to do more. It’s not that.
This is what it is; instead of waiting for things to change on their own, being the catalyst for change when I can. Think Serenity Prayer. Following the nudge in my spirit telling me to act, instead of ignoring it. Instead of complaining about a situation or person, make a positive forward motion if it’s at all a possibility.
I thought about it some more and I really didn’t like the word CHANGE. It needed to be more and yet less. Then it came to me. TURN.
We turn to something or someone. We turn away from things or people. We can turn into. In a sense, we turn back, we turn to and we can turn away from. Making a turn, is making a change. It’s dangerous and creative in so many ways. TURN is change but there is an added dimension to it. It’s richer.
TURN. I am going to filter 2016 through this word. Not sure what it will bring. What it’s going to teach me, what I will learn.
Today, on this first day of January 2016, I am definitely turning away from 2015 and turning to the hope of 2016.
2015 was a hard year. Not that anything really terrible happened. It was about an inner journey that has been difficult. A lot of questions. Few answers. So I am happy to turn away from it. I’m not walking away from it empty-handed though. I’m taking a few things with me as I TURN to the new year. Even in suffering, questions, doubts, good can be birthed.
I’m taking the things I learned about living BRAVE with me as I TURN to this new year. TURNING takes courage. I’ll need all the help I can get.
I’m taking the victories from 2015 and transferring and building on them into the 2016. Fear, anxiety, and lies will continue to be TURNED aside for bravery, hope and truth.
As I TURN to the new year, I turn with the hope that in a year’s time a few more things will be different. I read somewhere that despair comes about when there is no hope that things will ever change. It’s so very true. It’s stayed with me. I want things to evolve and grow and where I can be the change, I want to TURN into it.
What word is whispering in your heart and soul? Maybe that’s your word for the year. It’s worth thinking and praying about.
Or perhaps you just want to make some change too this new year. I have a couple of books I’d recommend for reading. You can’t read them without being transformed. That’s a good thing I think. They’ll make you uncomfortable and they’ll make you ask some difficult questions. At least, I hope they do. They rocked my world this year. I’ve mentioned them all at some point in my blogs. So if you are looking for a few books to shake you up and the world around you, put these on your reading list for 2016:
Beautiful Outlaw by John Eldredge
Help My Unbelief: When Doubt is Not the Enemy of Faith by Barnabas Piper
Rising Strong by Brene Brown
Nice Girls Don’t Change the Word by Lynne Hybels
Happy New Year!
Jen