Let There Be Light

What do you think of choosing a word or verse or focus for the year? I love the idea of goals. I love charts and lists and organizational journals. However, I am the worst at following through.

Enter the concept of a word of the year. It’s simple in theory, choosing a word as the focus for the year. It’s a little more doable for those of us with limited follow-through. Last year I chose Stillness. I shored it up with Wisdom and Wonder.

Stillness brought to mind the idea of simplicity, calm, and peace. However, while God did teach me about stillness, the year was crazy and anything but calm and peaceful. Our family had multiple medical issues which resulted in financial issues, and I released many books and tried many new marketing techniques, and I’d love to spend 2025 on a desert island just to catch my breath.

However, I clung to the word stillness, and God showed me that my plans, the world, my life—it’s all him. My only possible response is to be still and wait for him to act, then to use the wisdom he gives me as I navigate the paths laid before me, and then to sit in wonder at the complexity of his knowledge and love.

Illumination

This year, after many days of prayer and pondering, the word Illuminate bubbled to the surface. It has a lot of meanings. I have asked God to illuminate and help me surrender sins I hold onto, wounds that fester in my life and heart, and new paths I should take.

In turn, I want to be a source of light, that the lighting up he does within me will spill onto others. Like the moon, I want to reflect what he has done for me on anyone who comes in contact with me. I assume that will happen through my writing, but I’m open to whatever direction he chooses.

I keep getting this vision of a Spirit breeze opening doors and sweeping through, lighting and refreshing everything it touches in my inner being. I’ve collected a lot of closed, dusty rooms in my life through the years. I’m tired of carrying their weight and holding their darkness.

Although I’ve let this blog rest, unplowed ground for months now, which means possibly five people in the world will ever read it, I feel the need to share my own vision and general goals for 2025 here, a way of holding myself accountable to what God has said to me as the calendar opens. So, here are my hopes and maybe my plans for 2025, depending on what the Lord has in store for me.

Vision 

In 2025 I want to open my sinfully dark and broken places to Jesus’s light so I can walk transparently and fearlessly through this world. Then I can reflect and shine God’s light all around me, illuminating everything and everyone in my path with the warm light of Jesus.

Goals

1. Honestly face my own sins and wounds and bathe them in Jesus’s light and life so they won’t hinder me.
2. Release ten books that model a Christ-centered life. Show natural, ingrained Christianity. Write 6-8 more along the way.
3. Write one book that digs into Jesus’s character and illuminates something he wants me to share.
4. Release 10-14 audiobooks to reach more people.
5. Use my emails and blog site to connect and share my struggles and victories while living the ingrained Christian life.
6. Be open to other ways God can use my newfound light to illuminate any places in the world he wishes.

Verses

You are radiant with light,
    more majestic than mountains rich with game. Psalm 76:4

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (…in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Eph. 5:8-10

No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. Luke 8:16

Want to Play?

Already, God has brought a few not-so-subtle instances of illumination to my life. An ad for a devotional about God’s light hit my email yesterday, as did an invitation to a small Christian community called—not surprisingly—The Light Keepers. So. This might be one bright year for me. It’s all about opening my eyes, seeing clearly, and then surrendering everything to the Light. Nothing left in the darkness.

So yes, while I’d rather take the year off on that desert island I mentioned, I don’t think that’s the plan. But I’ve learned to be still and open to God’s big plans, and that will see me through.

Do you have a word for this year? Or goals you’d like to share? Or even a report on a word you chose last year and how it impacted (or didn’t impact) your life? Feel free to post below.