What to Do When a Word of the Year Finds You
Sometimes you go looking for a word of the year, and sometimes it finds you–like a cat who adopts you first or a word nestled into Ann Voskamp’s Sacred Prayer journal that stills your heart. And you know, without scouring word lists or weighing options or praying long for clarity, that the Hebrew word korban is your one word for 2025.
The C-Cruciformity, in Ann’s acronym for the SACRED way through, would wreck you at the end of year marked by layered surrender and tender time with Jesus. In Ann’s words, “The way of Jesus is never about upward mobility but always about the way deeper down, the way of the cross, the way of cruciformity toward God-intimacy.”
A year of talking honest with Jesus, often with bent knees and open hands, will teach you to treasure the conversations over how God might answer, intervene, or redeem. Ann’s words ring true: “Gethsemanes are places of intimacy.”
The other morning, as I change the song from the last I played in the car for the kids to the one I’ve been playing on repeat, a notification pops up. Would I like to see which songs I’ve played most this year? Why yes, yes I would.
Yes, I’d like to see the lyrics that leave me lingering on my knees, that turn me to the throughline of God’s ache and grace, tracing scarlet through history.
Yes, I’d like to re-live the goodbye that turned grief to gift. Remember again the furious flow of words it spurred as I walked next to the ocean then along Kentucky country roads. Re-surrender them back to Jesus.
Yes, I’d like to retrace, month by month, the songs that stilled me, awakened me, healed me with truth ancient yet always timely. The ones that walked circles with me through my basement as I read the Bible in 90 days (alongside others taking Mary Demuth’s challenge). The ones that kept my heart tender when I was tempted to withdraw.
Top Five Most-Played Songs
Turns out that the songs I couldn’t turn off played over 500 times each.
On repeat, daily, songs of seeking Jesus’ face, of surrendering at the altar, of soaking in His sweet nearness. Songs of transparency, unhinged adoration, unrestrained prayer.
They’ll fold your hands and mold your heart and shape your life like a cross. Impatience, pride, and self-sufficiency, dreams and details and timelines–exchanged for sacred connection with our Savior Jesus.
I listen primarily through Apple Music–with the repeat one setting checked–but I’ve discovered there is also a loop feature for YouTube. Here are the five songs I played most in 2024:
#5: What A Miracle (Chris Brown & Leeland) | Elevation Worship
#4: I Breathe You In God | Bryan and Katie Torwalt
#3: At The Altar (Tiffany Hudson & Abbie Gamboa) | Elevation Rhythm
#2: Worthy of It All (Live) | Eddie James
#1: Savior (Live) – Bella Cordero & Pursue Worship
If you want more song recommendations, I often include the current song I’m playing in Tuesdays with Twyla, my weekly note to my email friends. All the songs I share also go into a playlist called Songs I Play on Repeat–which you can find in my resource library.
2025 Word of the Year
Back to the word korban. I’m reading the cruciformity section slow, letting the words sink deep. But this entirely stops me:
This letting go, this living cruciform, can feel like we are sacrificing in deeply painful ways. Yet the Hebrew word for sacrifice means something very different. Sacrifice in Hebrew is korban, which literally means an approach, a moving closer. Sacrifice is not losing something but moving closer to Someone.
I know this! The way God is ever close when we’re unhurried and surrendered. How all feels like sacred ground–a gymnastics mat, a worn bean bag in the basement, a walking trail exploding with bent-near glory–when we expect to find the God we seek. How the posture of knees down, face to the floor unlocks reverent expectancy, which brings us face to face with Jesus.
Much of what was pending at the beginning of the year is still on hold. I’m walking in obedience and trusting God with the outcome. Still surrendering, over and over again, the parts of me that would prefer it my way.
So I’m adopting korban as my 2025 word of the year as a reminder that joy runs right through surrender.
Choosing Your Word for Next Year
What about you? Have you settled on your next word of the year?
Maybe you’re curious what a word of the year even means–what it might change in your life. Or perhaps you and I could sit for hours and swap stories of deep work God did inside through the words we adopted.
No matter which best describes you, I’d love to tuck a list of word ideas in your hand. I compiled a list of 200 words that will help you lean hard into Jesus and grow faith that ripples into your neighborhood.
Also, because I know how a word can get swept up or blurry without a rhythm of reflection, along with the word list, you get monthly reflection sheets. Spend ten minutes with the questions at the end of each month to accelerate your word-of-the-year growth.
Let’s pray.
Jesus, You know us thoroughly and intimately. You know what makes us cave, what wrinkles our brow, what makes us feel outright vulnerable. Guide us to the word that will keep us tender next year so that beautiful work You’re doing in our lives can continue.
Just a friend over here in your corner,
P.S. Prefer the audio? Subscribe to The Uncommon Normal podcast for the same weekly content!
2 Comments
Anonymous
Thank you so much for your beautiful words of insightful inspiration wrapped in the love of Jesus 💜🕯🕯
twyla
Just so grateful it encouraged you! Thanks for stopping by.