For he says, “At the acceptable time I have listened to you, and helped you on the day of salvation.” Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
2 Corinthians 6:2
Christ is Born! Glorify Him!
For the past several years in the parish where I serve, we’ve encouraged parishioners to choose a word to define their year. Instead of making New Years’ resolutions that most people not only won’t keep but won’t even remember, we’ve got people focused on the concept of choosing one word to define their year. (This concept is based on a book entitled “My One Word: Change Your Life with Just One Word,” by Mike Ashcraft.) Likewise, we choose one word as a parish to define our year. For 2025, the word for our parish was “build.” For our parish, this word relates to our “Arise & Build” Capital Campaign. We spent a lot of the year fundraising and creating plans for the expansion of our church building. Even though we didn’t physically “build” anything in 2025, we did build our treasury so that we have the funds to begin building in 2026, and we did build confidence in our community for these plans that we are making. We also rebuilt our mission/vision statement to coincide with the new building program. And have built infrastructure in the form of a dedicated committee who has overseen the planning process and will oversee the building process. Many thanks to the members of the Prayer Team who contributed to this program. This project is mentioned only occasionally and we will give updates as we take important steps. Most important, we are doing this building program in a way that is focused on Christ, and we joyfully will share the spiritual progress we make as well as the progress on the physical building.
The biggest accomplishment, by God’s grace, related to building in our parish in 2025, was that we were able to build the body of Christ significantly. Nearly 40 adults came into the faith in 2025 via baptism or chrismation, which by far is the largest number we’ve ever had.
Looking forward to 2026, spend the next couple of days thinking about a word that can define your year. It might be a heavy concept, like trust, or faith. Or it might be a practical one. One year someone chose the word “water” as a reminder to drink more water each day. When people make many resolutions, they struggle to keep any of them. Focusing on just one word, a word that you can remember and check in with every day, will help us improve in at least one area of life.
The one-word concept can be extended beyond just ourselves. In our parish, for 2026, our word is WORTHY. We will discuss this more in the reflection tomorrow, but the idea is to live a life WORTHY of our calling as Christians, and for our parish, to participate in our Arise and Build Project in a way that honors God in a way that He is WORTHY of being honored, and that will allow our church to continue to grow and expand in a way that is WORTHY of the Great Commission Christ gave us to spread the Gospel.
The idea of one-word guiding the year can be extended to our families. You can pick a word to define your family for 2026. It can be used in any group to which you belong. In our parish, we encourage ministries to choose a word for themselves—the Parish Council, the Sunday school teachers, etc. Your office staff might choose a word, or your company, your classroom if you are a teacher or your team if you are a coach. The one-word becomes a source of focus, and also a rallying cry when things don’t go quite right.
The one-word becomes something a family can check in with around the dinner table, or the staff at a meeting, or a team before a practice or a game. And if somewhere along the way, you forget to use the word or haven’t been faithful about checking in with it, it’s not like you’ve got to remember a whole list of things you didn’t do, or feel bad about not having done them. Just pick up again with the one word. For instance, using the aforementioned example of the word “water.” If someone chose that word because they want to make sure they drink enough water each day, if a month goes by and one hasn’t been doing that, they can start over at any time, on any day.
Another helpful hint is to choose a Bible verse to accompany your word. For our parish word, WORTHY, for 2026, we are using Ephesians 4:1: Lead a life WORTHY of the calling to which you have been called. (We will dissect this verse for tomorrow’s reflection). A great way to identify a verse to accompany your word is to use the App “Bible Gateway”, which allows you to enter a word and see every time it is used in the Bible. So, choose a word, and then find a verse that speaks to you in reference to your word.
Lord, thank You for the gift of this year that is coming to a close. As we embark on a new year, help me embark on a new journey of spiritual renewal. Bring a word and a verse into my mind and heart so that I can focus on that this year, and give me the strength to be bold in the face of a world that in so many ways seeks to take us away from You. Amen.
Choose a word for 2026. Write it down and keep it in places you’ll see it. Share it with others. Choose words to define some of your relationships or groups. For your personal word, let that be your focus for 2026. Check in with it daily. Choose a Bible verse to accompany your word. And may that verse be your rallying cry for 2026. Have a blessed rest of 2025 and a Happy New Year 2026!
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