My New Year Word
I love this time of year.
Christmas, the time we celebrate the birth of our God-man,
baby-king, Word-became flesh, God with us.
Then the end of the year.
The time to think back about the year we are leaving
and look forward to the New Year.
I have to admit I am a bit of a sap. I tear up at the thought of the end of the year, good-bye to 2010 never to be again.
Yet I love the possibilities of the new one coming. What new exciting, faith stretching, God-sized thing is God calling me to? What will happen? Who will I meet? Funny how I only plan on the good things, the exciting things, and yet I know hard things are to come as well.
In all my type-A personality, I have never set resolutions or goals because I fear failure. I look at a list of goals and if I don’t make it I think I failed. I have even stopped making lists for daily things. This is not a positive trait. It is just me and through God’s grace, I am working on it.
So in all my thinking about this past year and looking into the next, I have been praying for God to show me what this year was and what God is calling me to do next year….Drum-roll please….
2010 can best be described as stretching…
Serious stretching beyond me.
Letting God take over my hopes and dreams.
Letting Him do it His way and doing it all beyond me.
Opening up my mind and heart to God-sized things He can do if I follow Him.
My word for 2011 is growth.
Now that God has stretched me, I need to grow into the stretched out areas God created in 2010.
I need to persevere.
I need to grow beyond what I think is possible.
What about you? What did God do for you in 2010? What is He calling you to in 2011? Let me know I can’t wait to hear what He is up to!
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In 2010, I would say God broke me down. 2011 is all about putting myself back together, but this time with trust in Him.
The problem is I also suffer from Type A maladies, especially the one where I want to know the endpoint of any given activity. After all, if it’s useless to me then I can simply drop it. However, God is challenging me to simply “Go forth and make disciples of all nations.” I always wanted a challenge, but a challenge I could do. So I’m beginning to realize that I don’t have to do it myself (another Type A malady), do it on a precise schedule (yep Type A problem), or even know what the end goal is (I’ve heard that we prefer to be advisors to God, rather than followers).
Trust and obey, for that’s the only way.
Thanks for sharing D. Isn’t it great when we let God do it through us instead of trying to do it for Him?
I think I’m finally having a better understanding of what God expects of me: furthering His kingdom on Earth rather than promoting myself. Not that I’ve been purely self-absorbed all these years, but I’ve been missing the joy that I should have in serving God. 2010 was transforming for me in that respect. 2011 will be better yet. I will give Him the glory in any success I have on His behalf.