| Our family has never really done \u201cNew Year\u2019s resolutions\u201d \u2013 instead, we each choose a word. Everyone chooses a word that means something significant to them for the new year. A word that you want to see through, and have it manifest in your life over that next year with whatever comes your way \u2013 the turns and dips in the road, the joy and celebrating, the moments that make up the journey throughout the year. In talking with someone very close to me, the word \u201cCourage\u201d surfaced. This was the word they felt like was for them in the new year. \u201cThings are changing\u201d, she told me \u2013 and \u201chaving the courage to lean in or out\u201d would be important for her. The more I\u2019ve thought about it over the last few weeks and what God might have for me in the new year, I\u2019ve arrived at the same word. Hopefully she won\u2019t mind. I was recently re-reading something my Uncle David wrote a few years ago about the story of Peter. He writes \u2013 Jesus didn’t ask Peter to walk on water. Peter asked if he could join Jesus, and Jesus said, “Come”. There is the faith that follows orders, then there is the faith that asks without invitation. The greatest faith asks: “Jesus, can I join you in doing the impossible?” Courage to me, is about being willing to step out onto the water. And I don\u2019t think it\u2019s always something that presents itself to us as an invitation. I don\u2019t think courage is always a nice and neat option that\u2019s laid out for us to choose. I think maybe it\u2019s often things that aren\u2019t obvious or visible at first, things we wouldn\u2019t even allow ourselves to imagine or think would be logical to do. Courage isn\u2019t just about being willing to step out onto the water, it\u2019s about having the guts to ask. This year I\u2019m stepping out onto the water. I\u2019m going to be vulnerable in relationships, be willing to fight when the odds seem insurmountable – but more importantly for me, have the courage to lay down my sword, surrender and trust God when everything inside me wants to lunge forward. I\u2019m going to walk forward with my hands open rather than with clenched fists, place trust in others and love freely without holding back to preserve or protect myself, give of myself to others willingly and with an openness that means I could get taken advantage of or hurt \u2013 and dare to have the faith that asks Jesus without an invitation. This past weekend was the first time I had ever seen the movie, \u201cUP\u201d. It follows the story of Carl and the courage he has to embrace his loss, seek adventure and speak affirmation into a young boy\u2019s life. Carl\u2019s story reminded me of something about courage that I\u2019m going take with me into 2020..and that is that a worthy life is in all of the small moments that make up the greater story. Our dreams and visions for the future are realized in the small moments and sometimes \u2018the boring stuff\u2019 with the people we cherish along the way. The view of the falls is beautiful when and if we do get there, but the magnificence of a life is in the journey and the love that\u2019s shared in pursuing it together. Perhaps being courageous isn\u2019t always the biggest deed we think it is of reaching the peak, but rather leaning into the everyday moments that compound into the story of a lifetime.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Our family has never really done \u201cNew Year\u2019s resolutions\u201d \u2013 instead, we each choose a word. Everyone chooses a word that means something significant to them for the new year. A word that you want to see through, and have it manifest in your life over that next year with whatever comes your way \u2013…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"WB4WB4WP_MODE":"","WB4WP_PAGE_SCRIPTS":"","WB4WP_PAGE_STYLES":"","WB4WP_PAGE_FONTS":"","WB4WP_PAGE_HEADER":"","WB4WP_PAGE_FOOTER":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grantkennethtaylor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grantkennethtaylor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grantkennethtaylor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grantkennethtaylor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grantkennethtaylor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=534"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grantkennethtaylor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":535,"href":"https:\/\/grantkennethtaylor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534\/revisions\/535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grantkennethtaylor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grantkennethtaylor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grantkennethtaylor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} |