Word of the YearSample

Choosing Five Themes

Each year, I ask God to guide me to a theme word or phrase for the year ahead. The process varies with each year, but generally, I take time reflecting like we have the last two days - remembering, considering, journaling, and praying about the year behind and the year ahead. As I do, themes rise to the surface, words that connect to where I am in life. The last few years, I mulled over a long list of words and circled those that jumped out at me and slowly narrowed them down.

One year, I had been asking God to bring the theme to mind for a week or so. I was out on my small moss-covered patio when a song from my youth group days (from more than 20 years prior) popped into my mind. “You’ve turned my mourning into dancing again, you’ve lifted my sorrows. I can’t stay silent. I must sing for your joy has come.” And just like that - I knew that year, my word would be Joy!

That year I began digging into the Bible with my theme. I realized then that joy and sorrow are connected. Throughout Scripture, joy and sorrow hang out in the same verses, as unlikely siblings, connected despite seeming so opposite of each other. That year my dad died in April. These two words intermingled every day. The joys of watching our young dog pounce and prance and play made brighter in contrast to the sorrow that weighed me down. I was thankful that before my dad passed, the Lord gently illuminated the relationship of joy and sorrow. Then I could see joy and sorrow not as “good or bad” but two sides of the same coin, each making the other more poignant.

Today, let’s narrow down our potential words for this year to three to five potential themes. If you are struggling to know where to even start, do an internet image search of “word of the year lists.” Before you read through the list, ask God to guide your heart and mind.

Whether you read through a list of words that leap off the page or words well up from your heart and mind, I encourage you to land on three to five words/themes that resonate deeply right now.

In your journal, prayerfully dig into each word/theme. Here are a few questions to guide you:

• What does this word make you think of?
• How does this word relate to a struggle or hope you have right now?
• How have you experienced this theme in your life lately?
• What emotions rise up in you when you think of this word?

As you ponder all this with God today, consider asking Him:

Father, what theme(s) are you inviting me to focus on this year?

Jesus, how do these words and ideas connect to my life and heart and soul these days?

Spirit, how do these words/themes express my deep longing and desire?