Monday, January 7, 2019

Star Words for Epiphany

I have never been big on making New Year's resolutions.  Sure, I always want to be kinder, lose 10 pounds, and grow closer to God.  But I have not found that making resolutions helps me do any of those things.  In the past few years, I have adopted a word for the new year.  Usually it comes to me. One year my word was listen.  Another year it was courage.  I think last year it was time.  I wanted to live into the idea that there is enough time.  Not sure that one was very successful.  Basically I ponder that word through the year and seek ways to live into it more fully.

This year I hadn't considered resolutions or words until last week.  I was preparing to preach for two baptisms at First Fridays, and I came across a post about star words.  Now maybe I'd heard of them in passing, but I didn't remember them.  From what I can tell, Presbyterian clergy seem to have started them.  Star Words are given out on Epiphany.  They are words written on a cut out star.  Just as the magi followed a star to find Jesus and brought him gifts, so, too, we seek a closer relationship with the divine.  Our word can be a guiding star during the year, a word to ponder in our hearts as Mary did with all that she saw and heard about Jesus.  It can be a word we live into, that we use to connect us with God, to lead us deeper on our spiritual journey, to guide us into the new year ahead.

As I was journaling about star words, the word endurance popped into my head.  So I wrote it down, thinking that was a good star word.  Sometimes I can get worn out and give up, and it seemed that endurance might be good for me.  Except that it made me a little tired just thinking about it.  Then I moved into a listening to God exercise and the word I got then was gentle.  Seemed at odds with the first word until I spoke with my spiritual director, and we put them together - gentle endurance.

On Friday night I created star words for the First Fridays congregation. We passed them out at the end of my sermon, but I had to wait until after the service to draw mine.  Harmony.  I like that word.  Perhaps gentle + endurance = harmony.  Looking forward to how these words will work on my life in the coming year.

Happy Epiphany, everyone!

What word is choosing you in this new year full of possibility?