I’ve never been good at completing personal things in a timely manner. I let the busyness of work, or social obligations, or just pure laziness get in the way. But I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to share my resolution of sorts in case it encourages any of you too.

I’ve only had a “Word of the Year” once and it was because the Holy Spirit smacked me in the face with it unexpectedly, but firmly. Usually the idea of picking one single word for the entire year feels daunting and overwhelming. A year is a long time, and anything can change or occur, so how can I know the word I choose will be the right one or that I’ll even want to focus on it 2 months from now? But this year, a few days before January 1st, I was catching up on the end of my year long Bible reading plan, and came across this passage in 2 Peter: "For this reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ."

I felt the Spirit prompt me almost immediately, "What if you spent a month at a time focusing on each of these attributes?" And that's how my "resolution" for the year came to be. I am not capable of bearing fruit on my own without the inner-working of the Holy Spirit in my life, but when we partner with Him towards that growth, will he not be faithful to produce that fruit in us? So with joy, I combined that list with the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians for a year long plan to focus on sanctification, holiness, and ultimately, "deeper knowledge [and love] of the Lord Jesus Christ."

The Plan:

January - Love/Brotherly Affection

February - Joy

March - Peace

April - Patience

May - Kindness

June - Goodness/Virtue

July - Faithfulness

August - Gentleness

September - Self-Control

October - Knowledge

November - Perseverance/Steadfastness

December - Godliness

Each month, I focus on the attribute and throughout the month ask myself the following three questions:

1. Where do I see God display this characteristic within scripture?

2. Where am I seeing God display this characteristic in my life?

3. How might I, in turn, cultivate this characteristic in myself?

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I do not share this as a source of pride, but as an overflow of my excitement and as a potential invitation. If you are looking for a way to intentionally focus on your faith this year and this feels helpful, I'd love for you to join me on the journey.

Happy Late New Year, everybody! May it be filled with all the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living.

"For this reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ." - 2 Peter 1:5-8

"But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, against such things there is no law." - Galatians 5:22

It's December 1st, but rare fall colors are still lingering in Texas while I sit on a restful cabin porch in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Before I left town on Monday, I spent precious time I didn't have driving around looking for the prettiest autumn trees I could find. We so rarely get them in Texas. I found many, and was feeling full and satisfied, heading home, when I caught a glimpse of a tree on the street to my right. I turned around, and as I pulled onto that street, it stood tall to greet me. An explosion of scarlet leaves like flames, reaching high into the sky, spreading above the adjacent rooftops, towering over the other trees. A beacon of beauty directing the gaze upward. I pulled over, toppling out of my car, and snapped a picture of it, the screen missing out on the vibrancy it saves only for those who dare to find it in person.

It quite literally took my breath away, as the changing trees do every year. They are a signal that the death of winter is approaching, but it doesn't make the pigmentation any less beautiful. In fact, I feel they reflect an often overlooked truth — how the beginning of a thing can be beautiful like spring blossoms, new life on every branch and finger and how the ending of it can be so rich with thankfulness, gratitude dripping from limb and twig. The full color of the season only visible just before it ends.

Maybe that sounds sad to you, and I suppose it is. But it is also filled with a hidden sweetness. That if we are lucky, when a season comes to an end, it will do so in a way that allows us to savor every last moment with contentedness. To reply to Andy Bernard in the Office, that we do, in fact, know that we are in the good old days. The trick is knowing there will be more good old days ahead.

I've heard much said and written about hunting for beauty lately. I won't pretend to have invented the idea, but I do want to admonish you to pick up the practice. It is not an indulgent or idle task, it is a joy-producing one.

A friend recently asked for advice on how to enter into another's season of grief. There are practical things, necessary things, like meals, presence, and errands. But it got me thinking about flowers. Why do we send flowers to the hurting? There can be many reasons. It reminds a person we are thinking of them. It is the culturally common thing to do. But deep down, I think what we are doing is reminding people in all that darkness there is still beauty in the world. And we are making the hunt for it a little less difficult in a season where they probably won't have the energy to hunt themselves.

Beauty speaks to our souls. There is a reason that God didn't just make plants to produce oxygen, but he made them beautiful. A reason God didn't just promise Noah not to flood the earth, but He punctuated that promise with a rainbow, and why prisms filter light into that same image to this day. There is a reason He made the horse as majestic as it is strong, the ocean as stunning as it is vast, and the sunsets as masterful as they are practical for marking the days. He didn't have to give us beauty, but He did. Why? Why couldn't he have given us only what we need? Why was He so generous to give beauty as well?

I would argue that is because we do need beauty. Beauty stirs something in our spirits. It creates awe, and awe calls to something deeper in us than we know. It beckons the echoes of truth inside us to the surface. When we behold the layered petals of peonies, the veiny wings of butterflies, or stand at the peak of snow-capped mountaintops, we are stilled. We know there must be more. The hunt for beauty is anything but vain. It is our lifeline to the Divine. For this reason Paul tells us in Romans that He has revealed Himself through creation.

We need beauty in all seasons - it's why we celebrate marriage with white dresses and flora, why we share good meals with friends (for there is beauty in taste as well), and why we send flowers in the dark. In fact, it is in the dark night of the soul that I believe we need beauty the most, for not much can penetrate the darkness. Not words of encouragement, not gifts. But beauty speaks a language deeper than words. In beauty our souls receive well enough the truths our brains aren't ready to comprehend. It slips under the cloud and keeps us afloat until we can see the light.

In beauty, He reveals himself to us again and again, inviting us to wonder, carrying us into eternity. In that eternity, we will bask in the presence of a loving Father and all beautiful things that steal our breath now will pale in comparison to the beauty of our Husband King.