One Word 2017

So it's been a few too many years since the last time I posted about my "One Word," but in my defense, I've continued to choose a word each year and just haven't had time to post about it! This concept was started years ago and is explained in its entirety by my lovely friend Jenn back in 2010. This time as we neared 2017, I actually had a lot of trouble choosing just one word because I felt that God was speaking to me more conceptually. It was like I could "feel" the word more than name it, and I think that's because in a lot of ways, my "word" this time is a culmination of many of the previous words He's given me over the years we've been doing this. A couple of my previous choices that come to mind were "Truth" and "Firm Foundation", and in addition to both of these concepts, I've also heard from people "Focus" and "Discern" this year. All of these ring true to me, and point toward the concept that God has been showing me so powerfully in the last couple months.

Basically what I've been hearing God tell me is that we are approaching a time where everything will be sifted through. Surrounded by culture and politics and pressure and falsehoods and divisions and distractions...it is our time as the Church to make sure we are centered on and pointing others toward the ONLY thing that matters; Jesus Christ's redemptive work for us and the resulting complete victory and glorification of God for all eternity. Nothing else matters, and there ultimately is no other truth. Our identity, our hope, our purpose, and our eternity is either in that, or it's not. And increasingly so, I believe we will be challenged with the choice to "hold the line" on that - perhaps at the sacrifice of all else, or fall away.

I recently heard a message by Stuart Greaves at International House of Prayer's Onething Conference 2016 that simply blew me away because it put all of this into words for me, and effectively stressed the urgency I've been feeling about it all. As American culture increasingly mocks and denounces Christianity and believers in it, I've been feeling strangely peaceful about where my focus needs to be and what I need to be holding on to, lovingly yet firmly. We need to be ready to lose it all for what we KNOW to be True. We need to understand that by doing so, we will necessarily be viewed as delusional and foolish and even fanatical - things no one wants to be associated with...things my level-headed, approval-seeking, conflict-avoiding self tends to keep at a healthy distance. But at the same time, we need to align ourselves with Love so intensely, that the only possible outcome is glory to the name of God. If I'm a fanatic, let it be for His GOOD name. If I'm delusional, let it be with an active, genuine love that cannot be contained or ignored. Let my foolishness magnify the One who created life with perfect wisdom and patience and purpose.

The reason it's so hard for me personally to continue to do all this is not because God hasn't revealed it all to me before; it's because there is so much else to look at. If I'm too busy paying attention to the approval or disapproval or scorn or expectations of all the people around me, I can't see the way God looks at me. If I'm too wrapped up in the culture and the politics and the division all around me, I forget about the fullness of God's presence. If I'm white-knuckle gripping to my wordly identity and trying so hard to express myself through it, I lose sight of who GOD is and the way He constantly and beautifully reveals it to us when we seek it.

And it's because of all this (and a lot of prayer), that a particular word jumped out at me today as I was scrolling through an article. It's definitely my One Word for 2017, because I think it encapsulates all of these conceptual ways God has been speaking to me lately about what's to come.

My word is: gaze

I hadn't even made a scriptural connection with it, but I kept thinking about this idea of stripping all else away and intentionally and passionately focusing on the only thing - the ONE THING - that matters, when I thought of the verse that goes, "One thing I desire of the Lord, and that one thing I seek..."

So I looked it up (Psalm 27:4). And this is the exact verse, which explains exactly *how* we are to keep our focus and "hold the line" for Truth:

One thing I ask from the Lord,
    this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
    and to seek him in his temple.

And do you know what the actual definition in Webster's is?

Definition of gaze

1. intransitive verb

2. : to fix the eyes in a steady intent look often with eagerness or studious attention

God just blows me away sometimes. And I'm so thankful He brought all that together for me and confirmed so clearly how I need to keep Him first this coming year. I pray He'll be the fixation of your gaze this year, too, in a way that brings powerful, unmatched love and light to the world that so desperately needs it right now.