I’m extremely happy to be back home in Nashville after visiting my family in Minnesota for ten days. But, I’ve also had an itch to travel lately…road trip, air trip, I’m not really picky at this point…I just want to go :)
Looking back at this post makes me want to go all the more! My first venture into the blogging world and a ton of happy life-long memories. :)
If you were given a free ticket to the destination of your choice tomorrow, where would you want to go?
A couple of days ago I mentioned I was considering one word for 2011 after being inspired by this post from Alece. I’ve spent some time over the last few days praying about that word and I think it’s pretty clear. I think it’s one that God has been preparing my heart for in the last several weeks. And that word is surrender.
I thought about other words…
risk
dreaming
trust
relationships
community
fear
action
courage
But in the end, I realized that it really all came down to surrender…
Surrendering fear of trusting, of risking, of dreaming
Surrendering my plans for action
Surrendering to risk and trust in relationships and community
Surrendering takes courage
I realized that at the root of all those other words was a common denominator. The reason I don’t risk, don’t dream, struggle with trust, resist relationships, shy away from true community, am afraid, fail to take action, and lack courage all comes down to one thing…me not fully surrendering everything I have and everything I am to the One who gave it all to me.
So, I figured why focus on the symptoms when I can attack the cause head on :) A challenge? No doubt! One I can accomplish on my own? Absolutely not! But, bring on the pain. And yes, feel free to throw that back at me when I’m complaining about the pain that will inevitably come :) But I believe there is beauty and peace in surrender that we cannot fully know or comprehend until we are truly living it. And I believe complete surrender is worship…I believe it’s what we’re called to. And so, that’s my vision for 2011…my direction…surrender…complete surrender. What exactly that will look like I’m not sure, but I think I’m okay with that for now. I know He’s got a plan just waiting for me to reach out and take hold of.
Will you take the challenge? One word for 2011? If you do let me know!
Just for fun, I tried to cram the last 361 days into 150 words…
Cold midwest winter
New friends at VWRT St. Louis
Meet again at VWRT Nashville
March 4th
Amos 5:21 from a stranger
Meant wrestling with God
2nd visit to Nashville
April 22nd
God says go
Risk
Peace
Could Nashville be home?
Letting go
Goodbye to The CORE
Memphis in July – hello humidity!
Hope – go to give but end up receiving it
Echo Conference reunion
Take the online offline
Selling, giving, throwing
Risk…again
Pack life into my car
Move to Nashville
August 28th
3rd trip in 6 months
This time to stay
Beginning a new volume
Not just a new chapter
Dropped into community
A home at Journey
Living
Being
Healing
Doubt
STORY Chicago
Hope
Transition
New friends
Relationships
God brings it full circle
Theory to practice
Talking to doing
Doubt…again
Fighting
Persevering
Risk…yet again
Trusting
He’s faithful
He’s got this
Embracing the unexpected
I’m home
…for now
If you haven’t figured it out, I love words…I love describing things in few words. So, it’s natural that I would love an idea I came across from Alece on her blog Grit & Glory…one word for 2011. Looking back I think it’s safe to say that my word for 2010 turned out to be “risk” although that’s certainly not one I would have chosen or predicted at the beginning of the year. I’ve been thinking about my word for 2011 since reading Alece’s post and I’ll write about it when I discover it :)
What kind of words would you use to sum up your year?
May 28th. Wow. The year isn’t even half over and already it looks entirely different than I could have ever predicted.
In January I had every intention of sitting down and writing some stories for my life in 2010. And although I thought about them a lot, right now I’m glad I didn’t write them down. Because God has done a number on my heart since then and most of those stories would be obsolete and quite frankly unimportant to me, stories I wouldn’t even want to pursue. But since this year started, I feel like God has placed new stories in my heart. But this time, they aren’t mine, they are His for me. And that makes all difference.
As I write this I am still having an argument in my head as to whether or not I’m going to write stories for my life for the rest of 2010 (and beyond). Part of me just wants to get them down on paper and out of my head in order to process them. Part of me is afraid to put them down on paper because what if they don’t happen or they become obsolete. And the other, bigger, part of me is afraid to put them down because putting them down on paper means being held accountable for them, it means they’re real. And as exciting as that is it can also be completely terrifying at times. Because I know that the stories that God has placed on my heart are not going to be easy, they’re not going to be comfortable, they’re not going to be safe, and I like all of those things much more than I like risk.
But, let the risk taking begin. The stories are scheduled to post next week…even if in very rough draft form.
On a side note, “thank you” to those who have been a part of my bigger life story. I continue to be humbled and amazed at the people and relationships God has used to bless my life. Conversations I have had over the last five months have forever changed me. And I love that.
