Word of the Year 2025
Season after Epiphany 2025
During the week between Christmas and New Year’s, I engaged with the Word of the Year 2025 Workbook by Sharon MacGregor, owner of Serenity Farm Yoga Sanctuary (under Free Resources). Previous years I’ve done star words, where you engage with a word that’s been randomly given to you, trusting the Spirit in that randomization. Personally, however, for me, those words never lasted longer than a typical New Year’s resolution. So, I thought I’d try picking an intentional word, narrowed down after much reflection and journaling. I knew the word as soon as I thought it. The broad exercise was to “imagine without restriction what you want for 2025.” The specific question under that heading asked, “What do you see yourself prioritizing?” I wrote, “My self, my sanity, my sense of calm and well-being, and capability – empowerment.”
Empowerment then became one of three words I narrowed down to after eliminating and combining other ideas. As I reflected about each of these three final words, while I like and want the other two in my life (stability and adventure), it became quite clear that my imagination was captivated by the idea of empowerment. I was reminded of Acts 1 from the Bible, when Jesus promises that the disciples will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on them. Furthermore, it connected with other ideas I had written, such as being given the ability to affect your sense of well-being.
Empowered, to me, goes to my ordination command to “take thou authority.” It’s being given authority, given permission to act and be pro-active, given the ability to do what needs doing and “not stay where you shouldn’t be” (I got that phrase from a sermon I listened to after Election Day – “...God who meets us where we are, but who loves us too much to leave us where we should not be”).
Then, I looked up synonyms and antonyms for power. Power is ability, might, efficiency, efficacy, the Holy Spirit, competency, capability, skill, and talent. It is not weak, helpless, unable, impotent, or failure. Therefore, empower is to allow, entrust, commission, capacitate, sanction, and charge. The opposite of empower is to deny, disapprove, reject, and refuse. These actions disempower us.
It is then worth considering who or what empowers us. The first time I met with the senior pastor of the church we attend, in his prayer for me, a couple months before my ordination, he said, “God, you already ordained her; the Church is just catching up.” Some licensures, certifications, and ordinations come from the state or other institution. Other times, we look for permission from friends, colleagues, supervisors, and spouses. But the empowerment comes from God, the Holy Spirit flowing through us, joining with our spirit, so that there’s not much difference between empowered by God and self-empowered to act and do what needs doing and not stay where we should not be.
Questions to consider: What area in your life do you need to feel empowered to act? Is self-empowerment something you struggle with?