New Years Resolutions have never been something I have invested myself into. First, I never really saw much point. And second, when I did try, I usually failed at keeping them pretty quickly. My approach over the years has been more goal oriented, and not resolution oriented. Mostly.

Several years ago, I stumbled across the idea of choosing a single word to live by for the year. This has been a paradigm shift in my thinking in a lot of ways, and for several reasons. Let me give you a glimpse into my thought process.

I usually start thinking about this in October. That’s the time of year that I go to Colorado for a retreat called Wilderness. That’s where I review my Life Plan in detail and examine what God has been dong in my life closely to see how I can take further steps forward in the coming year. That week in the mountains is kind of my “spiritual fiscal” year. It’s a critical time for my spiritual and personal growth.

And that’s when I start asking God for a concept to focus on for the coming year. The past three years, I have used words that were all similar in how they were impacting my life: “present,” “unhurried,” and “balance.” Those all held similar goals and strategies for my life, and I feel like God taught me a lot over those years. (Here’s a list that provides an overview of all the words I have selected since 2011.)

Like many other years, God used that time in Colorado at Bear Trap Ranch to show me an area that I believe he wants me to focus on for 2020. He used a speaker at that retreat to impact my life in ways that I still haven’t completely understood, and suspect that he has plans to grow me in this area in the months to come.

That speaker made a simple statement about how she had lost her Kingdom Imagination when it came to certain areas of her life. That she had fallen into the belief that she was in control of those areas, and that her plans were the best plans.

In the process of hearing that, I realized that I have done the same thing. I have lost my Kingdom Imagination in many areas of my own life, and need to allow God to help me reimagine what he wants to do — and what only he can do — in those areas.

One example is my role as a parent, a father. I have a couple of teenage kids, and the drama, the rebellion, the arguing and bickering, has worn me down to the point where I have lost my imagination of what God wants to do in their lives, what he wants to do in my role as a parent to them, and in my life as a result. I need to reimagine that area of my life.

So my word for 2020 is “reimagine.” I want to see these areas of my life as God sees them, not as my circumstances dictate, or my own desires want them to be, but with God’s perspective instead.

To that end, I have constructed a strategy to help me gain more of his perspective. First of all, I have written the word “reimagine” at the top of every single page in my daily planner in big red letters. That’s a daily reminder to seek God’s view in everything, of every day, and not my own.

Second, I have incorporated this into my goals for 2020 as well. Rather than annual goals, I have broken my goals down into quarters, giving me a much shorter timeline to see some progress, but also giving me a much easier way to target them. Instead of working on all areas at once all year long, this approach gives the ability to focus on one for a time, and then move to another later in the year. It feels much more effective to me.

So for this concept of “reimagine,” my first quarter goal is to pray every single day for God to reveal to me what his perspective is for these areas of my life, what a Kingdom Imagination view looks like. From those daily prayers, I hope to receive some clarity for some action steps to take. I hope to receive some momentum, so that as I see God moving, I can jump right in and move with him in the direction he wants me to go.

This is a new approach for me. Typically, I look for concepts where God is growing me in October, pray over those until January, and then start acting upon them. This year, I have been clear on this concept since the day God smacked me with it, and even though I have been praying about it, I still feel my first order of business is to pray over it even more.

That may be a challenge to me because I am a task oriented person. I want to know what to do next. And as I think about how tough this might actually be for me to do, I suspect that it may be an area I need more of a Kingdom Imagination in as well.

What I do know is this: God has a bigger plan for my life, and every aspect of it, than I can ever understand. Reimagining it, gaining a Kingdom Imagination, will perhaps permit me to see a little more of it than I have, more than I currently see.

One word to live by in 2020. Reimagine. A word that will help me follow him a little more closely.

What about you?

Question: Have you selected One Word to live by for 2020? If not, would you be willing to consider it and pray about it? You can leave a comment by clicking here.