savor one word
[my year in review station 13]
Consider
What will you carry with you from the past year? What focus are you bringing along into the new year?
Certainly there is too much to consider to be able to answer such questions in just one word. Let’s approach this a few different ways.
Can you think of a word that might summarize the entire feel of your experience of the past year?
Sure there were a LOT of emotions, a LOT of experiences, a LOT to process. Summarizing always leaves something out — it doesn’t seem make room for the complexity we all experience. However, maybe there is a word or phrase that captures the overall takeaway of your year.
Did you experience great change? Did you experience loss? Did you experience new heights? Did you feel nearer to people to God or more isolated? Did you find newness or life or continuation of the norm? Was there a message, a theme, a continual shimmering thought that you carried with you this past year?
OR take another approach
Is there a word or phrase that you are carrying with you into the new year? Maybe it is a theme you are wanting to focus on? Maybe it is a hope or a goal or a one word prayer. As you imagine the unfolding year, what are you wanting to aim for intentionally?
write your word or phrase
Share
On the marquee in front of you, you will find many letters and even some emojis. Use any of these images or letters to share your ONE WORD (or phrase) from the past year or the unfolding one. You may also notice that other words are on the marquee. Leave them up if there is room. If not, make room enough for your word or phrase. But as you notice the other words, consider the variety of what might be placed here on the marquee through the night. For every word, there is a life connected — experiences shaping — forming that word. Remember that we are not experiencing our lives in a vacuum — ours is not the only word that matters.
Pray
Sit before the marquee — viewing both your word and any words from others. In your own words, voice the prayer of words of Paul,
“All praise goes to God, Father of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One. He is the Father of compassion, the God of all comfort. He consoles us as we endure the pain and hardship of life so that we may draw from His comfort and share it with others in their own struggles. For even as His suffering continues to flood over us, through the Anointed we experience the wealth of His comfort just the same.”
