“Attentive” (2024 Word)

Rachel Coleman

December 31, 2023 finds me in an unexpected location—enjoying solitude and quiet in a gorgeous, lovingly restored Victorian home near the campus of the College of Wooster. Geography shaped a “divide and conquer” mode for our year-end celebrations this year; Randy is in Nebraska with his parents and my plan was to be with Mom here in Wayne County. But Covid is still derailing plans; Mom and my sister are ill, so both Plan A and Plan B for lodging were canceled. Since this college town is in sleep mode over Christmas break, I was able to nab a room at the Black Squirrel Inn, so that I can be nearby to run errands and at least have socially distanced and masked conversations with family. But it also means a very quiet weekend, in a no-TV zone, so lots of time for reading, relaxing, reflecting, and even some writing. An unexpected gift!

Last night I was looking back over my “words” for the past few years, the phrases or images that the Holy Spirit gave me at the beginning of each 365-day cycle:

Taken together, these year-shaping words show me a pattern of being patiently wooed by the Holy Spirit, invited into fuller experiences and practices of trust and intimacy. “Draw near,” last year’s invitation, beckoned me into intentional pursuit of deeper intimacy with the Lord through the cultivation of various spiritual disciplines—Lectio divina (spiritual reading of Scripture), Scripture memory (it’s much harder at 61 than it was at 21!), persistent weekly prayer for awakening in the company of a small band of fellow believers, monthly extended prayer walks, and, of course, spiritual banding. (Ask me about it! Or read this or this.) The whole four-year trajectory of relational knowing—through drawing near to the Lord, through risking deep waters and dangerous surrender, through embracing beloved-ness (mine and that of the church, Christ’s bride)—has led now to a call to pay attention to the Voice that has become so familiar. As 2023 slides into 2024, I receive the word “attentive” as my word for this new year.

“Attentive” encompasses a whole package of postures and attitudes—alert, aware, expectant, receptive, responsive. It begins with the certainty that God does speak—is indeed speaking—in a rich variety of ways; attentiveness means being on the lookout—eyes, ears, heart, spirit, and imagination attuned to the sound of his voice and the glimpses of his hand. And I sense that this invitation to attentiveness is broad and expansive, a call to an expectant listening and looking that is shaped by Scripture but not limited to Scripture. I’ve recently become more sensitive and receptive to how the Holy Spirit can speak in dreams and visions and through whispered images sent straight to the imagination during prayer—this is far outside my comfort zone and prior experience, but as I’ve made the “dangerous surrender” to step foot into these “deep waters,” the Spirit has anointed the obedience with blessing to others. I want to continue to be attentive to God’s voice in these whispers, as well as to glimpses of how he is speaking in and through unexpected people in surprising places. (See “Advent Attentiveness.”) Most of all, I want to be attentive with the uncompromising intention to align myself with what God speaks, attentive with a humility and receptivity that is willing to be corrected, challenged, amazed, sent. In the words of Isaiah, I want to be ready and able to perceive whatever new thing God is doing—quick to see, quick to join him in whatever it is!

“For I am about to do something new,” says the Lord. “See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland” (Isa. 43:19, NLT). O God, give us eyes to see what you are already doing in the wilderness places of our lives and our world, imaginations to glimpse the cracks in the deserts where streams of living water are about to gush forth!

As always, I would love to hear what your 2024 “word” is, and how you came to receive that particular word from the Lord. Happy New Year!

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