Word of the Year

Last year it took me all of January to discern my “word of the year”, to figure out where I wanted to go and who I wanted to be in 2014.

But this year I’ve been ruminating on the same word for months: “SERVE”.

It started in early November when Randy gave a homeless man his Dallas Cowboys jacket, shortly after we’d been to the stadium for a football game. And I began to think about transforming my good heart into good deeds.

During that same trip—our cross country adventure moving me from Ohio to California—we had my dog Jovi with me, which meant that we were always looking for “pet friendly” accommodations. Many hotels accepted pets, some even claimed to be “award-winning” pet lovers, but in reality not all of them served us well. Some of these pet friendly hotels didn’t even have grass (real or artificial), expecting her to go to the bathroom in the parking lot (which isn’t friendly to guests with or without pets!). Others, however, had dog treats at the registration desk, specific pet walking areas, doggie bags and trashcans handy. One even had a specific floor of the hotel reserved for people with pets (though we still had to use the elevator to get there, which Jovi wasn’t a huge fan of). So I started to take notice of the fact that, in order to serve others well we need to know what the real needs are, otherwise our good intentions can fall short.

Later in November, once we were all settled in California, I had an interesting conversation with Randy’s brother’s fiancée, which was the final push toward adopting “SERVE” as my word of 2015. She said that her New Year’s Resolution for 2014 had been to “do something nice once a month”. Something above and beyond her normal, everyday niceness. To go out of her way for someone in need. This ranged from paying for someone’s meal at a restaurant to donating food to a family in need at the holidays to running a half marathon in which the registration fees went to support a local shelter. She didn’t feel she was very good at it, however. Often waiting until the end of the month to do her good deed, or feeling she lacked creativity in her desire to do something different each month. And so this will continue to be her New Year’s Resolution through 2015 as she tries to “do nice better”.

The most common feedback I received in 2013 when I took on “EMBRACE” as my word of the year was that I could find meaning and connection in the ordinary and daily, and that this was a powerful gift to have. So I started to wonder if I could find a way to serve others, in big and small ways, in new and ordinary ways, every single day.

What would daily life look like through the lens of a servant's heart?

When Christmas rolled around and we were having dinner with our California family, we each took turns going around the table saying what we wanted to focus on in the New Year. And for the first time I said it out loud: “In 2015 I want to serve.”