The new year is always an opportunity to reset and refocus. Setting a spiritual intention can be a helpful practice. What if we could start the new year right by choosing delight?
At the conclusion of every year, Jill and I pray that God will give us a word that gives focus to our spiritual growth in the next. This is simply the ancient contemplative practice of setting a spiritual intention.
It helps us cut through the noise and get focused in a world full of distractions and critics.
Most importantly it invites God to take the lead in setting our course for the coming year. If you want to learn more about how to set a spiritual intention read here.
2023 – A Cherished Year
Our 2023 spiritual theme originated with a text message from my biological mother. We had been disconnected for almost 40 years. This year I traveled to New York to reconcile and exchange healing words of forgiveness.
In 2023 our business led 135 trainings, consultations, and webinars. We provided presentations and workshops for five annual conference gatherings. We coached amazing leaders who planted churches, wrote their first books, revitalized congregations, cultivated fresh expressions, started new businesses, and diversified their income streams. We started new fresh expressions pathways in conferences and seminaries.
Denominationally we launched a distinctly Wesleyan, Spirit-led movement of new Christian communities that serve the present age. In Florida, we regrouped after a double whammy of Covid and disaffiliations. While hundreds of congregations disaffiliated from the UMC, due to the emerging fresh expressions we actually grew as a conference in terms of faith communities.
I published books, designed courses, and taught at several seminaries. The Fresh Expressions House of Studies continues to thrive at United. We are preparing faithful and fruitful students who can “read the signs of the times and know what to do.”
2024 – The Year of Delight
Our focus word for 2024 came as close to a voice from heaven as we have ever received, the word is delight.
Our Biblical grounding is Isaiah 61:8 “I the Lord delight in justice.” The word אָהַב (ʼâhab) “affection for” is sometimes translated as love, but more accurately denotes an intense sense of pleasure (sexually or otherwise). The etymology of the English word delight is from Old French delit, “a high degree of pleasure or satisfaction.”
What creates an intense sense of pleasure, or delight in the heart of God? מִשְׁפָּט (mishpâṭ) or “justice.” The Biblical idea of justice has parallels with our own but is also distinct. We think of justice as punishing criminals and protecting victims. Mishpâṭ is more holistic and is focused on caring for the vulnerable, liberating the oppressed, and healing the sick. It asks systemic questions like, why do people in poverty seemingly commit more crimes? Why do they get a different justice experience than wealthy criminals who can afford legal representation? Why are black and brown persons incarcerated at higher rates than whites? Why is there disparity in their legal outcomes?
If you want to understand the Biblical idea of justice, sing Mary’s song, “He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty” (Luke 1:51-53). Or consider Jesus’s sermon in Nazareth, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me, to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed” (Luke 4:18). All that is justice, and it delights God.
What if the pathway to experience true delight, was not in seeking delight for our own sake, but seeking to live a life that delights God?
Human beings were ultimately created in, for, and with delight. Creation itself springs from the imagination of God. Then God plays in the mud of the newly watered cosmos, forming mud pie humans who share in God’s delight. We were made to delight in God, to delight in each other, to delight in creation.
Jill and I are in an active season of ministry right now. Things are full. Many significant opportunities mark the days of our calendars. How will we take time to delight? These four key dimensions will be our framework.
Delighting in God
In 2024, what if we took time to delight in our relationship with God? This includes all the ordinary means of grace: prayer, meditation, worship, fasting, sabbath, and exercise. One practice that has been foundational for me is daily immersion in Scripture. I like to read from Genesis to Revelation using the One Year Bible as a guide.
This year I’ve released a new 365-day devotional companion Passio Dei: A Dail Devotional Through the Bible for Compassionate Leaders. If you are looking for a resource to guide your Bible reading, learn more here.
I’m also experimenting with different forms of contemplative prayer and the Ignatian way of “praying with the imagination.” I’m longing to move beyond connection with God towards delighting in God. How might you grow in delight for God in the coming year?
Delighting in Neighbor
Jill and I want to make an intentional practice of delighting in the people in our lives. Maybe this is the true intention of “love thy neighbor.” In order to delight we have to really see a person and see them through the eyes of Jesus, a kind of spiritual sight. We want to let our family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers know that we delight in them. That means taking time to be accessible and present. Making space in the schedule to be together for quality time.
Here we think there is a synergy with justice. We want to see the people in our community that feel like no one else wants or sees them. We want to work alongside them to create better conditions for life in our city. In our local pastoral work, we have seen St Marks UMC come back to life. From almost closing in 2020, we now have around 100 folks gathering on Sundays, 100 folks coming to dinner church on Wednesdays, and 100 more gathering in a variety of Fresh Expressions meeting throughout the community. My personal favorite is Higher Power Hour, we gather in the chemical dependency unit of the local rehab.
We are planting a new congregation, Compassion United Methodist Church, which will include a holistic women’s sober housing program. We want to delight in the people who will call this new faith community home, and we want the church to be a space of delight for all who enter.
The center of compassion is not suffering but rather delight. What we know now as compassion is a marred version obscured by the fall. The cognitive, affective, behavioral dimensions of compassion are merely the physiological hardware of relationships. What ways will you find time to delight in your neighbor in 2024?
Delighting in Creation
Here we really want to take time to be present with the planet. To spend time in nature. To commune with animal and plant life. To look for the sacred moments infused in a sunrise or sunset. To sit with an opening flower. To stare at the wild owl who lives in my backyard, as she stares back at me, listening to each other listening. This is about seeing the divine energy of love that permeates all the things. The innate goodness that is baked into every molecule of creation. It also includes taking responsibility to live in less ecologically harmful ways.
Delighting in the Undelightful
This last one is the growing edge, the stretch zone.
The past year was a season of emotional wounding. I’ve found myself increasingly outcasted. It’s not just about giving your time and energy to creating something beautiful, only to be pushed away from it. It’s about the loss of relationships that come with that.
In 2023-2024 major training engagements canceled on us. One director was honest enough to let me know that his pastors were “doing homework” on me. It’s clear that faithfulness to Jesus, and fruitfulness in his harvest are no longer the evaluative framework in an extremely polarized church. There are ideological and political lines that must be toed, under the guise of theological convictions. Once you are perceived as crossing those lines, you are outcasted from those tribes.
It was holding onto being cherished by God that sustained me on the harder days.
Additionally, the season of disaffiliation has led to a series of close relationships now broken. Part of this is on my side of the street.
I have a deep love for the UMC, that’s the lens I bring. From the time of my infant baptism, I have been surrounded by that “community of love and forgiveness.” I have been fed by her never-ending potlucks. I have been formed by her as a follower of Jesus. I’ve never considered disaffiliation or entertained a single conversation about it in our congregations. When people raised the point, we informed them we would remain UMC and there would be no meeting about it. Period.
Some of my siblings have decided to leave. But they have also chosen to take others with them. They have taken property. They have taken histories. To me it feels like they have slapped my momma in the face. They took all that she had to give and did her harm. There has been dishonesty and manipulation.
This is wrong. It is harmful behavior. If I was to leave the UMC I would just go plant a new church. I wouldn’t take disgruntled people and conference assets with me.
I have found myself harboring resentment in my heart about this. So, I’m taking time to pray and work through my own feelings. Ultimately, the relationships with my siblings are greater than which tribe we find a home in. I understand this. But when there has been a serious breach of trust it takes time to heal.
I believe the solution to a wounded heart is… delight. I’m committed to pray for my departed friends. Praying that God will bless and keep them. Trying to see all the delightful things about them.
In the recovery community we have a term for difficult folk… EGR’s (Extra Grace Required). I am one of them at times, and so are you. When we pray for people consistently a miracle happens. While the person we are praying for might not change, we do. We start to really mean our prayers for them. We start to see them for who they are as image bearers.
I don’t have room to carry resentment in my heart for anyone. The journey is too long and hard on its own. There is much work to be done now.
For me, I’m attempting to turn wounds into scars through the power of delight.
How will you delight even in the difficult people and situations in your own life? What will your focus word be for 2024?