One Word for 2015: Abundance

Happy New Year!!

I love the energy around the new year. The beginning and the end all at the same time. I like taking time to look back on the year that is ending while anticipating the year ahead.

Last year I started a tradition of asking the Lord for one word to function as a sort of theme for the coming year. My word for 2014 was "Abide." Looking back on the year, I love how this word was interwoven in every part of my life.

I wrote this in my journal at the beginning of the year:

Abide.

It has been quite clear that the Lord has brought me into a season of rest. I am rather enjoying (mostly) the adventure of discovering what resting actually means and looks like in my journey. The more I think on it, I am learning that rest does not equate to becoming stagnant, but rather involves continuing to move forward in a changing understanding, being renewed each step of the way. This is where Holy Spirit keeps whispering to me: "Abide."

In John 15 Jesus lays out a beautiful picture of abiding. Verse 3 says, "You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you." What?! Wow!! This verse is directly followed by, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me." This is where life and growth take place. This is where the unconditional love and acceptance of Father God is realized. This is where healing and victory flow.

And this is where I am.

Abiding.

Abiding in love.

Abiding in truth.

Abiding in God's presence.

Abiding in God's acceptance.

And none of this is of myself; on my own I cannot survive - apart from the vine I am dead. And so I choose to abide because Jesus decided to abide in me.

2014 was full of beautiful opportunities to rest and abide. I can't say that I was exactly graceful in all of these opportunities, but I am thankful for the patience and grace I was offered in every one of them - from the Lord Himself as well as from the people around me that I am blessed to have in my life.

Closing out last year, I spent some time answering a list of "50 Questions to Help You Reflect, Appreciate, and Get Excited for 2015." This was a fantastic exercise that I am adding to my New Year's tradition. It was fun to take a good long look at all that I have to be thankful for from the previous year and it was exciting to take that reflection and look forward into what I want for the year to come.

And the word I got for this year I actually received a couple of months ago:

Abundance.

When I first heard Holy Spirit whisper this word to me, I kind of brushed it off as if I hadn't heard properly. What could be more self-absorbed or conceited, right? But when I considered what I wanted for the coming year, I kept coming back to that word: Abundance.

In 2015 I will turn 30. I have done a lot of living already and I love my life! That being said, I know that there is still a lot of life ahead of me and I want to live it to the fullest.

Which is when I remembered what Jesus said in John 10 - "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." And then I wanted no other word for the coming year!

I want all that the Lord has in store for me - the blessings, the suffering, the challenges, the joy... the abundance. My faith is "yes" to the increase that the Lord is bringing for me, for my marriage, for my children, for my relationships, for my community, for my love, for my understanding, for my capacity to love.

Perhaps this is a risky way to hurdle into the new year, but I'm all in. I want nothing but Jesus; I will follow Him wherever He leads and do whatever He asks. There is nothing I want more than His presence; without Jesus I am absolutely nothing. He is my everything. He is abundance.

"From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another." (John 1:16)

"These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full." (John 15:11)

How about you? What are your traditions when welcoming a new year? What one word might you focus on for 2015?

Photo credit:

"Happy New Year" happy_new_year_2015_champagne.jpg

"Abide" abide-ft.jpg

"Abundance" abundance.jpg

The Cell Phone

Lately I feel as though my life has, in essence, exploded. I don’t mean for this to have a negative connotation, so please don’t hear that. I do mean that I am not the same that I was 6 months ago and I am not even the same today as I was yesterday. When I say “exploded” I am referring to the physics of an explosion completely changing the look and feel, the topography and physical recognition of whatever is in the zone of impact. The explosion is the power of the Holy Spirit and my life is the zone of impact.

In the last year or so I have endured trials of many kinds: I have been hurt and I have been hurtful; I have received Truth and I have believed lies; I have been forgiven and I have forgiven; I have been judged and I have made judgments; I have been accepted and I have felt rejected; I have loved and I have been loved; I have learned and I have slacked off; I have given much and I have received much. These things aren’t different than any other person’s life or any other season of life. So what am I learning in this particular season of trials and blessings?

I was listening to a teaching at Origins Church in Boulder Sunday night about The Pattern of Surrender. Pastor Ramin Razavi started in Ezekiel 47:1-12 about the vision Ezekiel had of walking out from the temple through the different levels of water (seriously, you should check it out!) and he posed this question: “How deep are we willing to go in the living water of Christ?”

This made me think about my own faith.

Faith: such a heavy word. So much is encompassed in just this one concept.

So as I was driving home from Denver, worshipping and praying and trying to listen, I asked the Holy Spirit about that next depth of Living Water I am to venture into. He asked me what I want it to be. I remembered some of the ministry from the Healing Path Day Retreat (based out of Robin Pasley's book) I had the privilege of attending on Saturday regarding being best friends with the Holy Spirit. Now, as I have mentioned in the past, I am kind of new to the whole concept of the Spirit’s ministry in and through me. So I expressed the desire to have that best friendship and to understand Him more so we can move together naturally as one.

He told me to call my (sleeping) husband (poor thing). I couldn’t understand what that had to do with anything. I honestly thought, well sheesh, here I am trying to spend time with You to understand You better and You want me to call my husband…

So I called Tom and he was very gracious and loving and we chatted for a few minutes but I was in the mountains and had bad reception so he kept asking me to repeat myself and I kept asking him to repeat himself and it was really just kind of silly to try to have a conversation at all. So we decided to get off the phone and talk later when I was in a place with better reception.

I hung up the phone and gave this kind of puzzled look of “Huh?” to the Holy Spirit. He then began to reveal to me how I view communicating with Him and Jesus and the Father. I realized through this conviction that I feel like I’m talking on a cell phone with bad reception whenever I am praying.

Of course, this isn’t an accurate picture of what it looks like to communicate with the Almighty God. Jesus says in Matthew 28:20: “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”  He didn’t say “I am just a cell phone call away, and if you get lucky, I’ll answer! And if you get really lucky, there might even be good reception and you’ll be able to clearly hear My voice!”

So, why do I feel like the latter words are more accurate than the actual words of Jesus?

I wish I had an answer to share with you. I am still trying to sort through all of my issues to hopefully discover what has caused me to believe this lie that communicating with the One who loves me so dearly and rejoices over me and is with me always is like talking through bad cell phone reception. I am on a mission to discover what has caused me to think of this as normal and live the lie that I won’t ever be able to have clarity in communicating with my Lord. For surely, since He is with me always, He is as close as my own breath and He is able to whisper sweetly in my ear and I am able to confide in Him at any moment. I long to walk in faith that this is true; I want my life to reflect that I am in constant communion with my Maker.

In all of my recent learning and revelation, I feel as though my eyes have been opened and I can finally SEE clearly. I wrote about how I feel like I finally received my corrective lenses in the spiritual realm here. I truly believe that as I discover where the roots of these lies about communicating in the spiritual realm come from and I root them out of my life, I will receive spiritual hearing aids and I will hear with clarity beyond what I can fathom and I will walk in communion with my Lord like never before!

When I get it all figured out, I’ll share with you, dear readers, so that you, too, might find the freedom that is being offered me. If you have already found said freedom, please do share about your journey that I might be encouraged and blessed and find the answers all the sooner!