One Word: Believe

A new year.

A new word.

A new start.

Truth be told, I loved my One Word for 2012 so much I really didn't want to pick a new word.  I have a love/hate relationship with change, and I kinda think I rocked True last year.  

Why fix it, if it ain't broken? 

What if the word I came up with for 2013 was a floozy kinda word? You know, just a word for the sake of a word.

What if the word I came up with ended up flopping, irrelevant and weak?

What if?  {insert swift blow to head from the Holy Spirit}  

What if I put myself aside, and let God come up with my word?  A novel idea, I know.

With that swift blow to the head, I waited. 

And waited.

Until, God gave me my word for the next year as I was walking in to Finley's bedroom.

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I sat in the rocking chair in her room, thinking about this new word. Dokimozo-ing it. Trying to determine if it was really from God.

I tested it against other words. Beautiful. Hope. Happy.  

I just sat with it, swaying with empty arms.

I looked up it's meaning.

be·lieve

 [bih-leev] verb, be·lieved, be·liev·ing.

verb

1.  to have confidence in the truth

2.  to accept something as true

Oh. Dear. 

With this I knew.  

For one year God challenged me to discover my trueself, to be true to myself, to be true to others, and to identify all that is pure and true, leaving behind all that was not.

Now, in this new year, God is saying, You thought I was done? {insert chuckle} Now it is time for you to BELIEVE in all that is true.

Ugh!

I was comfortable.

Now God is pushing me back into the tension.

He is challenging me to shift my thinking from knowing what is true to believing what is true.

And, for a recovering cynic like myself, that is no small task.

He is asking me to open my hands ever more and to believe in what I have found to be true.

To believe that we will be provided for.

To believe that I am beautiful.

To believe that I am worth it.

To believe that the world is broken.

To believe in redemption.

To believe in the Hope.