2019 Words of the Year

In 2018, I chose Power and Glory as my words for the year, listing them and stating, "But I also want to grow in humility."

On 1-8-2018, I wrote:

I am desperate to see the power and glory of God, and I want to see it this year, now, soon.  I don't want to wait and watch evil have its heyday before God reaches out His hand to do an awesome deed of righteousness.

So (I'm owning this, my brokenness, my flawed strategies), I decided to adopt "Power," and "Glory," as my words for this year.

I'm sure there is a root here, where I am trying to control, manipulate the very God of the Universe.

Dear Jesus, I'm sorry.  I'm so very sorry.  It's just that I am desperate to see your hand work.  You probably want me to seek humility this year, but I beg instead for you to show me your power and glory.  I am in favor of humility, I know it is a treasure I need to seek.  But I desperately crave the unveiling of your power and glory.  Please forgive me and make your power perfect through my weakness.

Perhaps ironically, but perhaps not surprisingly, Humility became the major theme of my year.  God knows what I need, and He is gracious to give it to me if I have any receptivity at all.  By January 19, 2018, I had tacitly accepted Humility as one of my year's words.  By February 8, 2018, I was overtly writing about it.  And thus it went.

So it may be no surprise that I've decided to keep Humility as one of my words this year.  I want to explore how humility is accomplished through growing in concern for the glory of God and the interests of others . . .  how humility is, in large part and perhaps ultimately, the expression of pure love.

In that vein, I am also going to take Love as a word for the year, lofty as it sounds.  Anyway, seeking love can't be any loftier a goal than seeking humility.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13).  Apart from Him, I can do nothing (John 15:5).

Humility leads to joy.  I've written about this before, but I need to examine it more.  Joy comes directly from gratitude, and we are grateful for what we recognize we do not deserve.  Humility helps us accurately comprehend the undeserved blessings God bestows on us.  It's a chain:  Humility leads to a clear comprehension of how gracious God is to us, and a clear comprehension of grace leads to deep gratitude, and deep gratitude leads to fullness of joy.

So, I considered taking Joy as my third word, but I think I will save Joy for next year.  I'll focus instead on a step along the path to Joy: Acceptance.  I need to accept humbly and gratefully what God has given me.  Sometimes it is easy, like when I think about my forgiveness, my salvation, and my sure hope of eternal life in paradise.  Sometimes it is hard, like when I think of how far I exist from virtually all of my family, and how I am missing out on the daily growth and development of my amazingly beautiful, brand new grandson, who lives approximately 450 miles away.  I crave joy, but I obviously need to work on having an attitude of acceptance.  If I can attain it, perhaps I will be surprised by joy (didn't C.S. Lewis write a book with that title?).  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, right?  That's a promise, isn't it?  And God is faithful.  God is faithful.  I'm not exactly feeling optimistic about this, but I'm trying to trust in what I know is true, rather than letting my feelings drag me down.

So those are my words of the year:  Humility.  Love.  Acceptance.

I've got two scriptures to go with them.  For Love, I picked a verse we've already learned in our 1 Corinthians Bible study:

Let all that you do be done in love.  ~1 Corinthians 16:14.

For Humility and Acceptance, I picked this:

My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.   Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.  ~James 1:19-21

Okay then.  Onward 2019.  We have a lot of work to do.