our blog
May
Focus is Required
I’m assuming you want to change something about yourself – your character, your default patterns or reactions.
That’s likely why you are doing My One Word. You want to be different.
Here’s what I can tell you about that. To change at a sustainable level, you are going to have to change what you focus on. You need to look at things differently in order to change. Your word is a great tool in this.
For example, is your one word TRUST? … Are you going to focus on Christ’s power, or on your circumstances today?
Is your one word PEACE? Will you focus on what you can control, or on what you can’t control?
Is your one word PATIENCE? How then should you live this next hour?
Questions like these lead us to focus properly. You want to change your focus? Change the questions you ask yourself.
Change the Questions You Ask Yourself
Rather than asking, “Why is this happening to me?” ask, “What can I do in this situation to affect the outcome (or others) for the better?” Rather than asking, “Why can’t I ever lose weight?” ask, “What small, doable choice can I make today – right now – to position myself for weight loss?”
Your brain will answer the questions you ask of it. If you ask it why you can’t loose weight, or why you are so disorganized, it will give you an answer. And that answer will sound convincing! It will say, “Because I love food too much.” Or, “I’ve always been messy – I just can’t help it.”
But if you ask your brain what you can do right now to move forward towards your goal, it will answer you: “I can put down these chips and drink a glass of water,” or, “I can sort through that stack of stuff piled on my desk.”
Change your questions in order to change your answers, so that you can shift your focus. Focus = Direction.
What we see – where we look, or what we focus on – determines the direction we will go.
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So what are you focusing on? Now? Today? Lately? If you want to change, start there. Use your one word as both a reminder and a tool to focus.
Are you looking for a way to keep your word in front of you all year long? Register for a My One Word account! One of the key features of a MOW account is an online Word Journal that allows you to capture your thoughts to reflective questions like you see above. You can go back at any time to read your completed journals to see how God has been moving in your life through your one word.
Apr
LETTING YOUR WORD INTERRUPT
Last week was especially difficult. I had to write a funeral service for a young mother of two.
The honor of preaching a funeral in such tragic circumstances is among the most precious of pastoral tasks. It’s also among the most difficult to prepare for.
I look at the picture of the family as I prepare. I’m seeking to immerse myself in their pain. I want to feel the emotion of what I am entering into. This enables me to unite myself and my funeral message with the mourners who will be in that room. It also helps me to manage the emotion that will surface during the service.
I rarely write out manuscripts for my sermons. Instead I jot down phrases and transition statements that only make sense to me. I was preparing my message for this funeral in the same way when my one word interrupted me.
While praying through the message and writing my transition statements, I looked up and saw my one word written on a 3 x 5″ note card above my desk: INVEST.
Seeing the word, I suddenly saw an opportunity. Looking through the lens of My One Word forced me to ask the question: Who needs the opportunity to learn to do what I am about to do?
This wasn’t a question of arrogance, but of stewardship. One of the reasons I chose the one word INVEST this year was to remind me that God has granted me the opportunity to invest in and develop other staff members at my church. To help them learn to deal well with circumstances like the one I was facing.
So I called several of our pastors and suggested they attend the funeral. Then I spent the next three hours writing out the entire funeral service message. I didn’t write it out to aid me during the service; I wrote it out to aid my staff. Next week, I’ll sit down with these young pastors and walk them through the manuscript - and the process of addressing tragedy in a way that helps people grapple with mortality, while calling them to faithfulness in spite of their pain.
Had I not looked at this situation through the lens of my one word, I would’ve missed this opportunity to invest in my staff. Hopefully my investment of time with them will help them to some day invest well in others who grieve.
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Your one word will interrupt your day if you let it. It will redirect you mid-task - helping you see important stuff you might otherwise have missed.
How has your one word interrupted you recently? What change in course did you make because of it?
Dec
A Twist You Didn’t See Coming
In a neurotic sort of way, I desire everything to go according to plan. Anytime there is a deviation even in the slightest bit, I tend to freak out. My worst fear is to hear a knock at the front door from a friend just stopping by to say hello – not because our house is a wreck, but because it isn’t completely spotless and looks like a museum. The same worry comes over me when I get lost, a random bill appears in the mail or my heater breaks when the temperature is suppose to be below freezing.
I don’t deal well with the unexpected, which is funny considering I’m part of the My One Word project. Just like me, you probably choose your word at the beginning of the year with a picture of how it was going to transform your character. Take patience for instance. You thought using this word as your lens to view the world would help you while stuck in traffic, dealing with a difficult coworker or enduring a tantrum by your child.
This did occur, but then your word began to do something different, something that was off your radar. God used patience in ways you would never have imagined. The outcome you were expecting as a result of your word was far less than the transformation God had in mind.
Patience no longer became about making your world a little easier to deal with. Instead, this word shaped the way you viewed situations which one appeared hopeless – a lost job, a sick relative, a broken relationship, even victory over a personal struggle. Patience was now interconnected with hope, persistence and fortitude.
What began as a quest to become better equipped at handling inconveniences, ended up becoming a way of seeing situations differently and exposing whom you trust when faced with uncertainty. Even in the midst of all this, you noticed gaps in your character and things you wish you could change. Yet, you also saw how your word allowed change to occur in areas that you had no clue you needed.
It provided a way for you to address the things you where unaware of or largely ignored. Now, don’t ignore this tension. Some of you have begun to contemplate what your One Word will be for the upcoming year. You want to pick a word that will make up for the gaps you discovered in 2011.
Your word is not some promise you will keep for a year to be better. The intent of your word is that it will become a part of you from here on out. Your next word will spring forth from the places where you feel you left off from your first. Each word you choose builds upon each other as God’s heart becomes embedded in your character. So, it appears I was wrong; sometimes the unexpected can be a good thing and bring change you would never have experienced otherwise.
- Think back to the person you were when you initially picked your One Word and compare it to the individual who’ve become. Did you expect to see the amount of growth you have experienced over the past few months? How did God use your One Word in ways you weren’t expecting?
- Read Haggai 1:5. What are some lessons you’ve learned over the past year? If you had to sum up your experience in one sentence, how would you do it? Why did you answer in the way that you did?