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Jennifer – Trust
Jennifer has chosen the word Trust for 2023. She wants to be committed to Christ’s plan for her as a daughter, wife, and mother. She recognizes that, at times, we can get lost in our own plans and not put our Trust in God.
In 2023, Jennifer wants to be centered on Christ and let go of her own plans. To do that, she will focus on serving others, surrendering her own will, and be in the Word.
Katy – Confidence
Katy has chosen the word Confidence for 2023. She recognizes that there are many areas where she lets worry and anxious thoughts consume her.
As she moves into student teaching in the Spring and a full-time teacher in the Fall of 2023, she wants to be confident in the role God has provided and in the calling he’s placed on her life.
She also wants to be more confident in inviting newly married couples to hang out with her and Evan and trying new experiences without becoming so worried or nervous.
Evan – Discipline
Evan has chosen the word Discipline for 2023. He explains that there are several things he wants to do more regularly, including:
- Reading the Bible
- Exercise
- Financial Responsibilities
- Reading Books
To take on more, he intends to reduce his screen time.
All of those commitments take Discipline to build consistent habits.
Evan also wants to be disciplined in how he and Katy choose to spend their time, talents, and treasures.
Cody – Embrace
Cody has chosen the word Embrace for 2023. He recognizes that at times, he’s more focused on the future than living in the present. As a result, he may not be making the most of where he is and having fun in what he’s doing.
This year, he plans to help with Impact; and he wants to get the most out of the next two or three remaining years of college.
Tanner – Progression
Tanner has chosen the word Progression for 2023. As he reflected on 2022, he felt like he stayed the same in his walk with Christ; and he wants that to change in the new year.
When he thinks about everything in life—including academics and basketball—he wants to demonstrate Progression.
As part of his focus, he wants to be intentional about getting better. (That resonates with my Core Value of Improvement – “To get better over time” – that I gleaned from my father and grandfather.) Cody noted that being intentional was a piece of his advice to Tanner, whom he urged to “Find Your Why” for basketball.
Tanner intends to listen more to the wisdom of his Coaches and Teachers and grow spiritually in 2023.
As David writes in Psalm 92:12, “The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon.”
My One Word: Surrender
Patrick Morley told this story in his book How God Makes Men: Ten Epic Stories. Ten Proven Principles. One Huge Promise for Your Life. Dr. Adrian Rogers, a famous 20th-century Baptist pastor, once went on a mission trip to Romania. Over the course of two weeks, he bonded with his interpreter but hadn’t learned much about the man’s thoughts. So toward the end of the trip, he asked the man, “Tell me, what do you think of American Christians?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” came the strange reply. This, of course, only made Dr. Rogers more curious, so he began to press the man for an answer.
After several attempts, Dr. Rogers finally said, “Why won’t you tell me? I really want to know.”
Finally, the interpreter capitulated. “Well, OK then, but you’re not going to like my answer. I don’t think you Americans understand what Christianity is all about. Back in the 1960s, you started to use the word ‘commitment’ to describe your relationship with Christ. However, any time a word comes into usage, another word goes into disuse.”
The man continued, “Until the 1960s, you Americans talked about ‘surrender’ to Christ. Surrender means giving up control, turning over all to the Master Jesus. By changing to the word ‘commitment,’ your relationship with Christ has become something you do, and therefore you are able to keep control. ‘Surrender’ means giving up all rights to one’s self. You Americans don’t like to do that, so, instead, you make a commitment.”
That story struck a chord with me, as I’m facing some significant career decisions to start 2023. When I shared my One Word with my family, I used Eugene Peterson’s translation of Galatians 2:20 from The Message: I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.
As part of my focus on Surrender, I’ll be exploring the 12 Spiritual Disciplines described by Richard Foster in his classic book Celebration of Discipline.
Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster
We hunger for an ongoing, life-giving, interactive relationship with Jesus. We want to be characterized through and through with the joy of the Lord. And we seek after all of these things not as some outward show but as the deep transformation of the inner person.
The Spiritual Disciplines are the means of God’s grace for bringing about genuine personality formation characterized through and through by love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22–23 – For more on this, check out my post entitled “How the Fruit of the Spirit Helps You Shoot for the Stars”).
One thing, however, will always be central to our exercise of the Spiritual Disciplines—Holy Scripture. Reading Scripture. Studying Scripture. Meditating upon Scripture. Memorizing Scripture.
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John give us a picture of Jesus Christ in vibrant, living Reality! We learn from the Gospels that Jesus undertook Spiritual Disciplines as a fixed pattern of his life.
Forty years ago, there was an abysmal ignorance of how we grow in grace, entering into ever fuller and deeper Christlikeness. Foster penned Celebration of Discipline in response to this crying need. The response was a genuine surprise. And overwhelming. The hunger for real, transforming power was greater than he ever imagined.
Our world has not changed all that much. The message of Celebration of Discipline is as relevant as ever. The needs are as great as ever. Divine resources are as available as ever.
Distraction is the primary spiritual problem in contemporary culture. Frankly, when we are perpetually distracted, we are unable to discern the Kol Yahweh—the voice of the Lord.
The Spiritual Disciplines: Door to Liberation
I go through life as a transient on his way to eternity, made in the image of God but with that image debased, needing to be taught how to meditate, to worship, to think. —Donald Coggan
The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people. The classical Disciplines of the spiritual life call us to move beyond surface living into the depths.
God intends the Disciplines of the spiritual life to be for ordinary human beings: people who have jobs, who care for children, who wash dishes and mow lawns.
One word of caution, however, must be given at the outset: to know the mechanics does not mean that we are practicing the Disciplines. The Spiritual Disciplines are an inward and spiritual reality, and the inner attitude of the heart is far more crucial than the mechanics for coming into the reality of the spiritual life.
The moment we feel we can succeed and attain victory over sin by the strength of our will alone is the moment we are worshiping the will. Willpower will never succeed in dealing with the deeply ingrained habits of sin. Emmet Fox writes, “As soon as you resist mentally any undesirable or unwanted circumstance, you thereby endow it with more power—power which it will use against you, and you will have depleted your own resources to that exact extent.”
Heini Arnold concludes, “As long as we think we can save ourselves by our own will power, we will only make the evil in us stronger than ever.”
In the book of Romans the apostle Paul goes to great lengths to show that righteousness is a gift of God. He uses the term thirty-five times in this epistle and each time insists that righteousness is unattained and unattainable through human effort.
God has given us the Disciplines of the spiritual life as a means of receiving his grace. The Disciplines allow us to place ourselves before God so that he can transform us.
We must always remember that the path does not produce the change; it only places us where the change can occur. This is the path of disciplined grace. The Spiritual Disciplines are intended for our good. They are meant to bring the abundance of God into our lives.
When the Disciplines degenerate into law, they are used to manipulate and control people. We take explicit commands and use them to imprison others. Such a deterioration of the Spiritual Disciplines results in pride and fear.
Our world is hungry for genuinely changed people.
Let us be among those who believe that the inner transformation of our lives is a goal worthy of our best effort.
Back to My One Word: Surrender
Judson Van de Venter (1855-1939) was raised on a farm near Dundee, Michigan. After graduating from Hillsdale College, he taught art in public schools in Sharon, Pennsylvania. Van de Venter was also active as a layman in his Methodist Episcopal Church, including participation in revivals held at the church.
Based on his fervent faith and service to the church, friends encouraged him to leave his field of teaching and become an evangelist.
As Van de Venter recalled, “The song was written while I was conducting a meeting at East Palestine, Ohio, and in the home of the founder of Sebring Camp meeting Bible Conference. For some time, I had struggled between developing my talents in the field of art and going into full-time evangelistic work. At last the pivotal hour of my life came, and I surrendered all. A new day was ushered into my life. I became and evangelist and discovered down deep in my soul a talent hitherto unknown to me. God had hidden a song in my heart, and touching a tender chord, he caused me to sing.”
In 1896, at the age of 41, Van de Venter penned the hymn I Surrender All.
All to Jesus I surrender;
all to him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust him,
in his presence daily live.
I surrender all,
all to thee my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.
It took five years for him to finally “surrender all” and follow the advice of his friends. His ministry ultimately took him to various places in the United States, England, and Scotland.
I, too, plan to “surrender all” in 2023!
Live Your Word & Share Your Excitement!
Keep your One Word front and center. What are three things you will do to make sure you have regular reminders of your word?
Share your excitement about your annual One Word with others! Tell them about your journey.
Share it on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn with a simple note of “My One Word is ___.”
May your One Word serve you well, as you shoot for the stars!