Word of the Year: Open

The power of a single word to cast vision, invite us to more, initiate deeper soul searching, and grow something of value within us—this is the allure of a word of the year. My word for the year for 2019 has been simply “open.”

I want to posture my heart like an open door, welcoming my neighbors into my heart, my home, and my life because I cannot live missionally unless I am willing to choose vulnerability, humility, surrender. I must live open. I must love with a heart open. I must be willing to let the broken pieces of me be visible. I must let myself be known. Because unless I am open, I will always be standing in the way of what God might want to do.

Being open is against my grain, as I’ve learned in layers through Enneagram work.

It’s not my default. I would rather keep my thoughts within than rake words across the peace. I easily downplay what I have to offer—but closed hands offer nothing. As an Enneagram 9 (Peacemaker) I have to learn what comes more easily to others: to speak up. To offer me. To be present when I am present.

The depth of our relationships is determined by our willingness to crack open through to the real. I wrote in “Real Talk: What We May Not Know We are Missing” that “tender brokenness brings strength—this is mystery. Pain held gently with open hands, others invited into the healing, brings us all round, brings us all together, God at the center.” It’s paradoxical, isn’t in, that being open is the only way to be full? That being broken is the only way to be whole?

The end of the year nears and I try to wrap up more of what I have started. A book by Ann Voskamp—words I long savor so they can soak in deep. I have one last devotion. This morning I read that “You are as healable as you are vulnerable.” We keep God away with the same walls we build to safeguard ourselves from people. We break down the walls, we let both God and people in.

Strung along the curtain rods behind the Christmas tree are five beautifully hand-sequined stockings. Each stich placed is an offering of love. My grandma, she lives open, given as Ann Voskamp so often phrases it. Her gifts fill our home, reminders of my Grandpa’s face lit with with smile as he praised the way Grandma so tenderly cared for him. She gave more of herself than is possible with mere human strength—being the sole care-giver for the one she had built her life with for over 67 years to his final day—because when you give your life away you get it back in fuller measure.

I try to put a wrap on my 2019 word of the year, wanting to live out open to the fullest to the very last December day. It’s been a brave word, a costly word. I take one step in and I must keep going because I am aware of the double-sided nature of inertia. Inertia, correlated often to Enneagram 9s, unpacks so much for me. The first step is often the hardest—true. Each next step gets just a little bit easier—true again. So I keep journeying, slowly descending because the way to depth is to humbly offer my open. 

Open.

Posture my heart like an open door and my feet will follow—this is the undercurrent pulsing through this year, the rhythm of 2019. 

Open is interruptible. Open is available. Open is vulnerable. Open breaks down walls and builds benches, like Emily P. Freeman writes of in Simply Tuesday. It makes a space for others to sit with you, to do life alongside you.

In the space where the circles of our lives overlap with those of neighbors’ is the ever-present invitation: open. I’m missing half the amount of chili powder I need for dinner—I choose open in asking a neighbor if he has some I might use. Another neighbor knocks at the door and unwashed dishes still overflow the sink—I choose open in inviting them in out of the cold, into the real, into my life. There is an opportunity to bless beyond the reach of our neighborhood community—and I choose open in helping our presence be a present to bless.

I pray that if God is stirring a fresh idea—a specific way for you to be open—that you lean in. Carve out some intentional moments to listen. Let Him meet you in the fear of the unknown—the fear of being known. Perhaps, like me, you need a word for the year that reminds you to open up a little more within your family, your neighbors, and your other circles.

I pray that you would feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in a tangible way right now, lifting the weight off your shoulders—the weight of expectations, and failures, and excuses. I pray that He would saturate your heart with deep knowing that He alone tells you who you are—that He sees garments white as snow when He looks at you—that He is not asking you to be brave without Him, but with Him.

Just a friend over here in your corner,

Change your actual life in less than 5 minutes per day!

You can change your actual life in less than 5 minutes a day because baby steps truly can change the trajectory of your life. If you want 2021 to be the year you actually start living on mission in your neighborhood, this little book (available as a paperback and on Kindle) will help you get there. Each of the 30-day devotions takes but a few minutes to read, but they will lead to lasting life change.

Wish you knew your IRL (in-real-life) neighbors?