This is my word for the coming year. It encompasses two integral parts.
Embrace God and embrace all that He has for me in the next 365 days.
New Year's resolutions have their place and I'm sure some people give diligent thought to coming up with them as well as carrying them out. The last number of years I have been drawn to just one word and one verse. I had not spent any time pondering a word for 2017 but when the time came to choose, embrace came quickly and I know why. Embracing God and life are immensely important to me and yet I find myself experiencing varying degrees of struggle with both.
Embracing God is paramount to embracing life. Much of life doesn't make sense and unless I am able to embrace the fullness of God, embracing life will always be a challenge. So...I desire to pull out the stops and wrap myself around my Father who is wise and good and sovereign and holy and generous and to trust and rest and believe and find comfort in the character of the triune God. Further, I long to move into the coming days in HIS embrace while I simultaneously embrace life....the joyous and heart wrenching, the confusion and peace, the way He gives and the way He takes away and the growing of my soul which is possible through it all. My Spiritual Director has reminded and challenged me with these words--
"God is perfectly wise and is perfect love.
The choices that He makes are best
even if they don't feel like that to us in the moment.
Can we truly and deeply trust that?"
--Ingrid Reichard
Hmmmm....I have far to travel to live with such faith.
My verse for the coming year came just as quickly as my word and in fact bears embrace within it.
"And he got up and came to his father.
But while he was still a long way off,
his father saw him,
and felt compassion for him,
and ran
and embraced him,
and kissed him."
(over and over again is the meaning here)
(over and over again is the meaning here)
Luke 15:20
For Christ followers these are well known words of a prodigal son who eventually comes to his senses and returns home only to find his beloved father waiting for him with open arms. Every time I stray from my Father's best...every time I squander what He has given me....every time I abuse the inheritance He has afforded to me...every time I come to my senses and come home to Him, He is always there waiting and watching with a heart of compassion and arms ready to embrace and kiss me over and over again. Oh such lavish, merciful love! This is the love that surrounds me in the coming days.
I walk into this new year already in His embrace but with a heart which longs to fully embrace Him and the life He has custom designed for me.
