2019 Word for the Year

I’m not in love with the word I’ve chosen for my 2019 Word for the Year, but I can’t seem to get away from it. That generally means it’s the right one.

There were a lot of contenders: Commit. Pray. Engage. Speak. Interact.

All perfectly good words in themselves and a lot to consider over the course of the year … and a lot to do.

You probably know I like verbs for my Word for the Year. They’re active, there’s something to work toward, to do. In the past, I’ve had words like *revel* ; Attend! ; }pacify{ ; and [conform] .
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In 2018, I found my word, [conform] has an active sense – we actively try to become more like Christ and less like the world. But! It also has a passive sense – we are conformed to Christ by the Father, by renewing our minds, but the work of the Spirit. We become what we behold. We will conform to something whether we like it or not.  Our action, therefore, is often putting what is good before our eyes so we can Attend!

}Pacify{ had this active and passive sense, too. In many ways, it is the work of the Spirit and not mine at all. But somehow, some way, I’m trying to bring peace into my home. Most days this seems to be an abject failure.

Attend! I have a tendency to retreat into my own world – or the internet world, rather than knowing what is going on. Even reading, I don’t always engage with the ideas on a deeper level. This one is a pretty active thing because it’s a habit leading to it being a passive thing. It’s related to becoming what we behold, too.

The first, *revel*, was a step too far. I should’ve started with Attend! because you have to notice to rejoice with exceeding great joy. I do tend toward the melancholy, though, and I do want to enjoy my kids and them know that I enjoy being with them.

So, you see, it is not that I have obtained these things! My Words for the Year tend to stick around and become enveloped in the newest one.

And they’re all related; they’re facets of a gemstone. They intersect with each other; they influence each other. You can see how the other words I was contemplating fit in with them … sorta.

I was talking about Words for the Year with my friend Betsy from Redeemed Reader and some other friends early in November. I couldn’t quite get my mind around what I was seeing with the ideas I was coming up with. Betsy actually ended up choosing my word. She looked at them and said, it sounds like you want to “commune.” I looked for a synonym that had the same senses and just couldn’t find one, so: commune.

commune. hits all of the ideas (commit, engage, speak, pray, interact) with a dose of some others that are important. I don’t want to speak at people or pray at God. I’m not some imparter of wisdom, although sometimes I tend to be … reticent to speak when I ought. Rather, I want to be in community with people and God. I want to communicate with them – which is an idea with more give and take. I want to be less isolated from the people in my sphere.

That said, I’m not in love love with the word. Its noun form has some associations I’m not trying to imply or wrap my arms around. Ahem. So I’m thinking I’ll write it with the (v) marker a lot of the year.

So, here’s to 2019.  commune. With God, people, ideas. The old words will continue to make their presence known, I assume.

Do you have a Word for the Year?