Anger. That’s the word I’d use to sum up my year. It’s been a year of battles. Battling my wife. Battling myself. Battling God.

It’s a good thing for us that the battleground is a fertile place for God’s love in our lives.

In 2011, my anger ruled me more than I care to admit. I often felt helpless to control it, to rise above it. I felt like a beast. Primal. At times predator. At times preyed upon.

In January, when I wrote my annual blog post about prayerfully choosing one word to define the upcoming year, I felt encouraged by the word given to me by the Holy Spirit: closer.

I thought the word was a promise of deeper intimacy with Jesus. I hoped the word signaled the end of my depression. But that was me overlooking the layers in God’s Word, the complexity within the simplicity.

Even though the year is drawing down and closer is tied to 2011, it’s not a tie that immobilizes; it’s a tie that connects. The words we get each year are foundational words. They build the altar upon which we worship Christ, in word and action. They have relevance every year of our lives.

• Obedience
• Relationships
• Reconciliation
• Growth
• Shine
• Closer

I will continue to be shaped by closer, beyond December 31. It’s now a part of my name.

Even if we don’t experience the fullness of our word each year, at least in the ways we expect to, the year isn’t a failure. We aren’t failures.

I dare say we never will experience the fullness of this annual discipline as long as we assume the discipline is about us receiving something rather than about receiving someone — about receiving Jesus.

• How did 2011 turn out for you?
• What was your word for 2011, and what word has the Holy Spirit bestowed upon you for 2012?

Please take the time to let me know.

Prayerfully choosing one word that embodies the promise of the upcoming year is a discipline I picked up from Dan Britton, the executive vice president of ministry programs at the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

I’ve chosen one word each year since 2006 and have been encouraging sponsors to join me in the practice since 2008.

For 2012, my word is thanksgiving.

For important points to consider before beginning this spiritual discipline read Dan’s essay, One Word.

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This is a discipline I picked up from Dan Britton, the Executive Vice President of Ministry Programs at the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. I’ve chosen one word each year since 2006, but this year, I decided to skip it.

I’m pretty far from God right now. I’m clinically depressed, and my beliefs have gotten disconnected from my behavior.

I’m not doubting or questioning anything about Christ, I’m just not moving forward with Him. I’m mired in emotional and spiritual temper tantrums. So, in spite, I decided not to pick a word for 2011 and not to write a post … until God sent me an e-mail, via a co-worker.

My co-worker, Patrick, told me about the word he’d chosen for 2010 and the experience he had relating to God with the word in the forefront of his mind.

To me, that was God saying,

“I’m here. I care. Let me show you something.”

I felt convicted … and selfish, because the discipline of choosing one word as a theme for the year isn’t about me and how I’m feeling. It’s about Jesus. And it’s about each of our relationships with Him.

Patrick says that choosing one word for 2010 was “one of the best things [he] decided to do with [his] life up to this point.” And I usually say the same thing, except the words the Lord has given me NEVER play out like I expect them to.

Last year, my word was shine, and I was excited about it, particularly since the previous year my word was growth.

One word sounds painful and difficult, while the other word suggests promise and harvest. But the truth is, the words are similar to one another. They’re not gifts, they’re complex calls to action.

The words the Holy Spirit shares with us require us to “step up.” This discipline is not something to do on a lark because it sounds fun. It requires a commitment. It’s something that requires you to lean into the Lord and to step up and assume responsibility for the talents He has given you. I did not do that in 2010.

I sat back and waited for my harvest. And I did experience a harvest in many ways. The most significant being the birth of my first daughter, Cara (Beloved). But with the harvest comes work and for me to truly shine I need to step up and keep stepping up.

The words we get now are the foundation for the words we get in the future; they rest atop one another, strengthening our faith, defining our walk with Jesus and serving as snapshots of points in our lives.

For me, my brief walk with Jesus has been upon these words.

Obedience.
Relationships.
Reconciliation.
Growth.
Shine.
And now, Closer.

What is your word for 2011?

• Read Dan’s document, One Word, for suggestions that will help you with this spiritual discipline.

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“Seven years ago, I started the simple discipline of picking a one-word theme for the upcoming year. That is right — one word. Not a phrase, not a statement, just a single word. And to this point, it has been nothing short of life-changing.”

That’s a quote from Dan Britton, senior vice president of ministry advancement with Fellowship of Christian Athletes. And I can vouch for what he said.

I’ve been part of the annual one word posse for a few years, although I don’t know Dan, and have been amazed by how the Lord has used it in my life.

I surrendered my life to Christ in 2005, and the following year was all about obedience. That was my one word. Take ownership of the commitment I made. Surrender self. Be joyfully obedient and faithful to God’s will and Word. It was, and has been, positively liberating.

2006 was the year I met my birth father and his family — my family — for the first time. So, naturally, 2007 was about relationships. Not just with my birth father, but with Jesus as well — an ever-deepening relationship.

And relationships don’t occur in a vacuum, so as those relationships developed all my other relationships, at all levels, were changed. They are still being affected.

Picking a word for 2008 wasn’t a slam dunk like previous years. Lots of words came to mind, but they all seemed wrong. I prayed for a month and never felt like God helped me out. I felt like I just “picked” a word, instead of just “knowing” my word — just knowing the “rightness” of it.

Ultimately, I chose reconciliation because it speaks of harmony, compatibility, restoration, agreement and consistency — all things that are necessary in successful relationships. And, I have been uh-MAZED at how this word has affected me this year.

It turns out that according to Strengthsfinder 2.0 (a really cool book I highly recommend), my number one strength is . . . harmony.

What’s significant about this is that I wrote the phrase “it speaks of harmony, compatibility, restoration, agreement and consistency” — with the words in that order— last December. I took the Strengthsfinder 2.0 test in June.

In hindsight, I could add another word to that list: balance. As in balancing, or reconciling, the competing demands inherent throughout life and in love.

Another blessing of this practice is that these words build upon one another, allowing me to better see, feel and experience Jesus in my life well beyond the year the one word “applies” to.

For example, 2007 was about relationships. It was the year I started working at Compassion. I left my previous company after working there for 10 years — changing a relationship — and began working here. Now I’m in a position where I’m responsible for helping you feel more connected with your sponsored child, with our ministry and with each other. More relationships.

Picking one word is about picking one thing to focus on during the upcoming year. It’s not a New Year’s resolution. It’s a challenge to surrender control of our goals and ourselves and let the Lord lead.

If you get a chance, read all of Dan’s document. But don’t read it when you’re in a hurry. Read it when you have time to digest it. Then come back here and let me know what word God put on your heart for 2009.

On January 9, I’ll randomly pick five people to receive a free copy of Compassion’s 2009 calendar.

P.S. If you don’t randomly “win” a calendar, you could always consider Compassion’s photo calendar.

Oh yeah! My one word for 2009 is growth. Ugh! It sounds painful.

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“Let’s not curse the darkness, instead let’s light a candle.”
- Anonymous

Hello everyone. By now, I am sure some of you may wonder where I disappeared to. My blog absence has been for a good reason.

From December 27 to late January 2008 my country was plugged into what is now famously referred to as post-election violence; violence in which over 1,000 people lost their lives and over 300,000 more were displaced from their homes.

The impact was even more devastating in the slums, which saw the biggest brunt of the violence and left many people wondering, questioning, hungry, displaced and grieving the deaths of family and friends.

It was at this time that I decided to start a reconciliation program at one of the child development centers I grew up in. I wanted to try and help the children, who mostly live in the slums, understand what was going on, to give them a platform to share their feelings and a place for them to come and heal.

On March 20, I received a letter from the local government representative that I had been selected among 15 other young men and women in Kenya to join the national reconciliation program, which is a special program started by the government to bring the people of Kenya back together and help prevent a similar scenario in the future.

So all this time I have been traveling around the country talking to various political groups, communities, churches, elders and youth on the need for unity, and more importantly, forgiveness.

It has been tiring, but its all worth it. And it gives me a chance not only to share with people the love of God but put into practice the skills I learned through the Leadership Development Program, to teach the importance of servant leadership, which I believe is the solution to the many problems here in Africa.

The program will come to an end on May 23 and hopefully by this time a nation will have been saved through the candles that were lit by 15 young men and women.

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