Last January when I came to visit you and preach for you, I was thrilled to see that you had already begun a practice of choosing Star Words! I heard about the tradition back in 2013 and started choosing a word each year since. My word for 2024 was tenderness. I chose the word, because I knew there were a lot of big changes ahead for us, and I wanted to take a posture of listening and kindness as I prepared for the transition in my ministry as well as our family life. I wanted to deliberately avoid rushing and fussing and feeling a need to do everything at once. I wanted to make time to enjoy our goodbye's and hello's and help our girls prepare for new schools and new friends.
One of the ways I like to explore a word is to make a special playlist of songs. When I thought of tenderness, my mind's ear went to JS Bach. I created a playlist called, "If it ain't baroque", and I filled it with all of the Brandenburg Concertos, Violin and Cello Suites, and other Bach standards. I also like to keep an eye out for books with the word in the title. One word book I picked up was The Wisdom of Tenderness by Father Brennan Manning, and I learned in that book that tenderness radiates from a fullness of the knowledge of God's delight in us. He puts it like this:
In a moment of naked honesty, ask yourself, "Do I wholeheartedly trust that God likes me?" (Not loves me, because theologically God can't do other-wise.) "And do I trust that God likes me, not after I clean up my act and eliminate every trace of sin, selfishness, dishonesty, and degraded love; not after I develop a disciplined prayer life and spend ten years in Calcutta with Mother Teresa's missionaries; but in this moment, right now, right here, with all my faults and weaknesses?" If you answer without hesitation, "Oh yes, God does like me; in fact, (God is) very fond of me," you're living in the wisdom of accepted tenderness.
As I read his words about remembering that we are already a beloved and precious child of God, I thought about how tender my children are to me. I pictured God stroking my hair with the same tenderness that I use towards my little girls. Perhaps this is too gushy and fluffy for you, but in a world filled with so much hate, I find myself needing to visualize the tender, kind, and soft love of God.
Since I was sick on the day of choosing words this year, Robbie brought home a stack of cards just for me to choose from. One of those words "sparkled", you could say, to me, and that word is radiate. Radiate seems to be a happy word to me, thinking of the sun shining and filling the world with light. I think this encapsulates my hope for a new posture to greet this year of unknown. With the two holidays and snow days and viruses, I have found it challenging to get a good start on this year. But like a soft blanket tenderly wrapped around cold legs, what starts as a small warmth can radiate throughout your whole body. So let's keep our feet warm as we step out into the year. May God's affection for the human race begin to radiate from our kindness and tenderness towards one another, Alleluia, Amen.
What word or words did you choose? Start a conversation in the comments!