Half-Baked: Midway Through My Word of the Year 2017

I didn’t choose my word.

It chose me.

I knew before the clock struck midnight, my word for 2017 was “raw.”

Raw is a daunting word. It means...

Underdeveloped and underused.

Not finished.

Not refined.

Painfully exposed.

This year has been all of the above.

The Lord wanted to develop me as a daughter, an artist and a writer and show me where my talents were underused. There are also the areas that He is not finished with yet and needed me to be willing to be painfully exposed or vulnerable to grow and allow Him to refine me.

It was time to push past the fears.

It was time to be who He created me to be.

I wanted to be more like Him.

For years I have asked the Lord in prayer and in worship to get rid of everything that keeps me from Him. To empty me of what isn't pleasing to Him and what doesn't serve my purpose well. I have laid myself bare before Him and asked Him to mold and shape me. He hears the cries of my heart, even the cries that can’t be heard yet because there is still too much in the way. The cries that come from sheer desperation and places of deep pain.

He has faithfully responded. Continually challenging me to push past the fears.

The fear of pain.

The fear of loss.

The fear of looking foolish.

The fear of making a mistake.

The fear of failing.

The fear of relationships.

To get me there, that place, that place I long to be with Him and more like Him, well, I had to be raw.

My word of the year is like a God-given goal.

It's been an intense year, but in an interestingly peaceful and confident way.

There has been much heartache, but more growth.

Many tears, but much laughter.

Lost relationships, but more intimate friendships.

It was only last year that the Lord first gave me a word for the year and it was extremely helpful in focusing on what He had in store for me in that season. It gave me something to hone in on and gave me direction in working on a specific area of my life.

We are only half way through 2017, but this word - raw - it is radically changing me, in all the best of ways.

The word came almost as a warning too, “It is going to get tough,” but also as a gift because I knew it was the Lord. I can trust when He says He is going to do something that it is going to be worth it.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. 

Isaiah 55:8 NIV

Take a few minutes and listen to Rita Springer's Gonna Be Worth It.