With defiance in her eyes and a sly smirk, she vehemently threw it all to the ground. Every small and large morsel was carelessly tossed to the floor below. Some fistfuls were launched with unexpected accuracy against the refrigerator and cupboards.

Goodbye: a simple word used in polite discourse to suggest gratitude or to kindly put an end to a conversation or task. It is a word that loosely falls from our lips multiple times a day and we hardly even blink. But we know, even simple words can hold weight.

Pause does not inherently mean stop. Instead, it provides breathing room to examine, rest, listen, and obey. Sometimes stop is easier because there is a finality to it while pause feels like this stubborn dateless, endless nothingness.

Some are our mothers by birth, adoption, or marriage. Others are grandmas, aunts, and sisters. While others are mentors and friends. Women who have poured into the lives of boys and girls, men and women.

There you are, wounded prey on display. The enemy swoops in and takes advantage of a weak moment when your head bobbed too far above the shelter of the ground. His talons tighten and the clutch cuts off your hope. In vulnerability, you find yourself ensnared, limp in the grip.

I hobbled into 2023 knowing I had been emotionally bruised by the thrashing of 2022. As I limped into January, I feared my “word of the year.” After all, choosing a word at the start of each year is not like picking a sweater off the rack or a meal off a menu.

Today marks an end, a victory for me. The audiobook for God’s Big Ask is finally available for purchase. Granted, this comes a year later than originally scheduled. It wasn’t laziness or fear that paralyzed the process; rather, it was a different type of labor where God was working. 

The time of year when whirlwinds transport us from one event to the next. We ride the waves of wrapping paper, waft through aromas of holiday treats, and wade through rising costs and credit bills. None of it is bad - the church things, the school things, the family traditions, the family expectations, the workplace obligations, and the shopping expeditions. There is just so much hurry in a season where we inherently long for serenity.  

So, let’s pause.

Satan knows his place, but as the deceiver he works really hard to bruise, bater, and belittle the people serving, protecting, and building the church body.

Your pastor, your shepherd, needs more sheep to serve on the warrior flock. Will you take up that mantel, that call? You may never know the fullness of how much it matters.

One year ago, a dream was fulfilled and released into the open space of publication. 255 pages of intimate words, carefully crafted sentences scripted with the help of the Holy Spirit. Months of toiled soil bore a harvest in the form of God’s Big Ask.