Fresh Start. Fresh Heart.

Forgoing the usual nostalgia of New Year's posts, let's get right to it.

The older I get, the more I discover how much I dislike small talk. Sure, it's necessary at times, but really, who has time for that? 

Here we are at the beginning of 2020. Whether 2019 was awesome or awful, we've crossed into the threshold of a new year. What was, is no longer. What will be is positioned before us. 

Do you have a word of the year? I do. I wasn't sure I was even going to pursue one this year, but it just came to me the other night. I kind of saw it spell out in my mind while I was absent-mindedly doing something. The word?

F O R G E.

To be honest, I had to look it up to see what it really means. 

Here's what I found:

1: a furnace or a shop with its furnace where metal is heated and wrought 
2: a workshop where wrought iron is produced or where iron is made malleable
3: create (a relationship or new conditions).
4: produce a copy or imitation of (a document, signature, banknote, or work or art) for the purpose of deception.

While I can rule out the "for the purpose of deception" bit of the last one, I think there's something intriguing about all of these definitions. 

2020 will be the year I get out of my own way. I feel like there's a realization I received this past year that allowed me to see that I'm the one thing truly getting in the way of forward progress. 

I blamed Satan, God, even other people, but the truth is that I was plain old afraid of failure, so I just tread water. But the thing is, you can only tread water for so long before you run out of energy and have to be rescued--or drown. 

Thank goodness I serve a God who walks on water, He gently revealed to me that I was in fact my own nemesis. 

So this year, I will be reaching out, moving forward, and forging on. There are relationships to be made, opportunities to be created, and service to be done. As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another (Proverbs 27:17). I aim to be malleable in the hands of the Father, to be used for His purposes. I strive to be an immitation of Him and His example of righteousness. 

May this be a year of tremendous growth for all of us!

Who's in?