Focused Passion 2025

Every year I begin with a day of reflection to seek the Lord for what His Word for my year would be. For over a decade, I have been practicing this single intention and it has reaped amazing rewards. Sometimes, it has been the sole life line that allowed me to continue, holding fast to the scripture and the word God gave me for that season.

2024 was a difficult year, but as God promised, He was faithful. All our needs were met and while we still look forward to things coming to pass, God did indeed prove to me that He is faithful when I am faithless.

As I begin this year's journey into what word would I hold onto to define this year, I was inspired by words like enlarge, adventure, and explore. I think this has more to do with my desire to see things come to pass and inspired by scriptures like:

For you shall expand to the right and to the left, And your descendants will inherit the nations, And make the desolate cities inhabited. (Isaiah 54:3)

He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and expand my territory! Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain!” And God granted him his request. (1 Chronicles 4:10)

I will pursue your commands, for you expand my understanding. (Psalm 119:32)

The next set of words were ones that I had been sub-words for several years, things that were being developed inside and outside of my "offical" word for a given year. These were words like growth, resilient, and mastery and inspired by scriptures like: And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. (Galatians 6:9)

I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. (Ephesians 3:16-19)

So whether we live or die we make it our life’s passion to live our lives pleasing to him. (2 Corinthians 5:9)

So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless. (1 Corinthians 15:58)

I knew these were once again, not the area's God was calling me to. This left my initial list with just three words left- focus, passion, and intention. As focus and intention are very similar in their meanings, I finally felt settled in my heart. This year of 2025, will be my year of focused passion.

The dictionary defines focus as: "a central point, as of attraction, attention, or activity: close attention or concentration: the ability to concentrate one’s attention or to sustain concentration". This is a key term in photography (one of my many hobbies), to focus your subject in an artistic way that allows the viewer to see what you see. Scripture has much to say about staying focused, but my favorite is found in Philippians (which is probably my favorite book in the Bible). "I don’t depend on my own strength to accomplish this; however I do have one compelling focus: I forget all of the past as I fasten my heart to the future instead (3:13).

This leads me to passion: any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate. a strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm, or desire for anything. I don't just want to focus, I want to actually focus on the passion God has set before me. Which just so happens to be what Paul continues to share... And let us all advance together to reach this victory-prize, following one path with one passion (Philippians 3:16).

No longer do I want to be distracted by the many things that can grab my attention. The goal is to forget the past in order to focus on the future. And the best way for me to do that is to focus on Heaven and take as many people as I can with me. As my pastor recently said, keep the main thing, the main thing. Jesus is my main thing.