What's my word?

This past year was one that I hope I don’t soon forget because I struggled in every area of life. I struggled mentally. I struggled physically. I struggled spiritually. I struggled financially.  I struggled with making decisions, although many people would say that is nothing new. I struggled with being bored. I struggled with not being able to help others. I struggled with not being able to be alone. I struggled with not being around my friends and coworkers and students. 2020 was a real struggle, so maybe my word should’ve been struggle instead of focus. Haha Many people would argue that I need to forget all that and move forward and I strongly disagree. I don’t need to forget about it because there is a lesson to learn from each area that I struggled in, but I also know that I don’t need to dwell on it.

       As the year ended and I began to ask God for a word for 2021 I wasn’t sure what the word would be and I wasn’t really seeking with all my heart. I prayed off and on about it and one day I felt led to read Habakuk, the whole book; which is only three chapters. When I set out to read in my study Bible I usually read the background information first and there on the very first page in the first paragraph or two was my word. It jumped off the page, slapped me in the face, and calmly returned to the sentence it belonged to. I read Habakuk searching for more insight, for my word to jump off the page again but this time with meaning as I wasn’t sure what it meant for me or why that would be my word so I prayed about it. I didn’t want to accept it because it means I would have to be willing to change and I’m not the best with change.

Here is the part of the introduction to Habakkuk that grabbed my attention:“His name is thought to derive from the Hebrew word chabaq, “to embrace”, but its form appears non-Hebraic."

There it is, my word for 2021 sitting so nicely between quotations, mimicking me, taunting me, telling me to wake up and change my perspective on life, more specifically my life. EMBRACE. If you know me, then you know I’m a word nerd and decided to look up what embrace means, yes I know what it means, but in order to accept this as my word I need to know exactly what embrace means to give myself some guidelines. As I looked up the meaning, I asked God what am I supposed to embrace. Family? Friends? Folks on the street? God simply said, “yes”. So, here is what I found. According to dictionary.com, embrace means to clasp in the arms, to encircle, enclose, to take up especially readily or gladly to embrace a cause.

I’m not much on embracing in the sense of the definition above, so I dug a little deeper because I really didn’t feel satisfied with what I found. The results I found by using Google were more satisfying, and I could see where God was leading me. 

Embrace Life: diving into a world that acquires meaning only through active, conscious awareness and participation.

Embrace Yourself: let go of harsh self-recrimination and happily accept your own identity and uniqueness.

Ah, now I found something worth squirming over. This past year, I did as many of you did, at least I think you did, I just went through the motions. There was much thought processing going on, especially once we were shut down and quarantined to our homes. There wasn’t a reason to do more than just get through the day. So, it’s time to embrace life again. I need to embrace life more than I did in 2020 but even more than I did before that too. God wants me to be active, conscious, aware, and participating in life at my fullest potential. I need to stop just getting through and start living. Three quotes stood out to me as I continued my search for embracing life and they are listed below.

1. “Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and it's beauty.” ― Albert Einstein

2. “Never apologize for being alive, find your purpose and embrace life.” ― Gift Gugu Mona

3. “Some moments are happy. Some moments are sad. Live each moment. Embrace life!” ― Avijeet Das

The last quote hit me where it hurt, because I wasn’t embracing life. I had some happy moments, but I let the sad moments cast a dark shadow on the happy moments. I didn’t embrace each one as they came, but held tightly to the dark moments in my life. I’m letting go of those moments not because I’m forgetting them, but because I’m ready to move forward and to make room to embrace what lies ahead.

 I also need to work on embracing myself and accepting my uniqueness and not see it as some flaw. I am different. I am weird. I am me. I am a child of God. I am the daughter of the one true king. I care too much. I keep to myself. I have issues. I like working out.  Some of you may read this and agree or disagree, but none of that is my business. I need to get back to embracing who God created me to be and work on bettering myself.

As I work on embracing life and myself I need to remember to put on the full armor of God and rest in knowing that HE’S GOT THIS. I found exactly what I need to do in order to embrace life in 1 Peter 3:10-12 MSG. I’ll share it with you because in my opinion this is exactly what we all need to do. 

“Whoever wants to embrace life and see the day fill up with good, Here’s what to do:

 Say nothing evil or harmful; Snub evil and cultivate good; Run after peace for all you’re worth."

There it is folks, four actions to embrace life. It was sitting in the Bible the whole time, all I needed to do was read it. May we all embrace life this year and may we remember this quote from Steve Maraboli, “The strength of a man isn't seen in the power of his arms. It's seen in the love with which he EMBRACES you.”