A Year of Lessons

November always gets me thinking about gratefulness and nostalgia over the past year. Sometimes those feelings get stronger over the next month heading into January where we flip the final page on the chapter of a year and move on into the next...but, those stirrings are hitting me pretty hard already at the end of November this year. 

In recent years I have chosen a "word of the year" to kind of set the stage for the upcoming trip around the sun. It was "Inspire" when I felt I had been keeping my head down to the ground and not looking up for inspiration from what God was doing around me.  It was "Intentional" when I learned I shouldn't just go through life reacting to whatever came my way, but to be purposeful in setting goals and making my days filled with proactive rather than reactive words and deeds. 

I didn't choose a word of the year for this year because in December 2016 I was struggling through a bit of depression barely functioning through the holidays I usually enjoy with all the enthusiasm of Buddy the Elf, but I felt more like Scrooge. I had literally worked myself into a frenzy. Concerts, rehearsals, events, school responsibilities, meetings, day after day after day.  In the middle of that , I was headed into the second trimester with my pregnancy and we had a scary midnight trip to the emergency room when I thought we were losing our baby.  I had gone more than two months without taking time to read a book, get coffee with friends, go on a date night with my husband, and a much less than adequate time reading my Bible or praying.  January came with compulsion to do something to change this path. I didn't want to start 2017 the way I ended 2016. 

So, even though I didn't choose a word in December/January to describe this year, as I look back on it, I think my word of 2017 would be Selah. It's the year she arrived.  It's the year God taught me about taking a Sabbath margin in my life. It's the year He taught me about seeking and creating community. It's the year God taught me about how to live entrusted with the gospel, His gifting and calling. It's the year He taught me about making my work purpose-filled for the gospel.  God taught me to breathe this year and that in the sound of my breath I could glorify him in my work, my sabbath and my Selah.

I don't know what word He will have for me in 2018, but as I look back on 2017, I want to praise Him for all He has taught me and brought me through this year. I would like to think at thirty-two, married with two kids, and as a tenured choral director I would have this whole "adulting" thing down. But, what I'm finding out is there is always another lesson to learn in the next chapter. 

--Gabrielle Haston