One Word To Lead 2015

Time used to dance slowly for me.

I remember my creeping countdown to Christmas break. Spring break. Summer. The beginning of our lives was marked with seasons broken up for us, with rest.

Then there was college and marriage and all the responsibility that piles itself high. It feels like a new kind of time that believes you’ve exchanged wonder for a number. An age.

I’m wide eyed in disbelief that it is almost 2015.

This year, I’ve told too many people that I am 26. When in fact, I turned 30.

Somewhere along the line, time stopped for me. Somewhere around 26. Right when I got married. Right when my life stood at the precipice of incomprehensible bliss and heartbreaking burdens.

Right before the world started to really dig in and tell me what path I needed to follow. To whisper who it thought I was.

Maybe you’re weary too? Maybe you’re also recounting lost days and moments in your mind. How is the new year almost here?

Rest always comes when I sit with the One who created time. His patient presence. His sing-song consistency. Always there. Always.

So I sat with Him and we talked about 2015. About my heavy heart and my wild childlike dreams. About His love that just won’t stop and His grace that has caught me an embarrassing amount of times.

We talked about our word to lead me for 2015. And when He revealed it to me I thought, “Yes!” and, “No.”

Invite.

Jesus did a lot of inviting during His time on earth.

Inviting discouraged failures to walk by His side. Inviting children to come untethered. Inviting the outcast to come to the only One who actually had a say over who they are.

He invited them into homes. He invited them over sips of water. He invited them into His lap and to rest on His shoulder. He invited them to walk with Him. To stay awake with Him.

And ultimately, by His death and resurrection, He invited us all into the only Love that could save us. Grace us. Clean us.

Invite looks like a lot of things. It is vulnerable. It requires that I have time.
It begs that I come just as I am and invite you just as you are.

But do you know who I am going to invite first? Myself.

I am going to invite myself to spend more time suspended with the only One who could make sense of this path I am on. I am going to invite myself to sit, really sit, and learn from Him about how He invited, why He invited, who He invited…

And then you know who’ll invite next? My husband.

Because as time has whirled fast around us, it has been easy for us to extend an uncounted number of graces to each other. Allowing each other to respond to commitments. To skip out on the other to respond to someone else’s need.

It seems fitting that I start practicing this art of inviting with him. Because, like I said, when I was 26 that’s when time seemed to stop.

It seemed to stop right as a young man stepped into my life and invited me into his.

If you have never participated in One Word you can read more and join us this year!

What is the One Word that will lead you this year? Leave a comment below because I’d love to know it and pray for you.