Scripture: Isaiah 43:18-19
Key Verse: “I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:19, NRSV)
Reflection:
“I am about to do a new thing.” The language of Isaiah is immediate. Something is already beginning to take shape, already pushing through the surface of what has been. The challenge is our capacity to perceive it — and perception is shaped by where we are looking.
Star Words are often received at the beginning of the year as something to hold, something to reflect on, something to return to. If the risen Christ is already ahead of us, then the word we received was never meant to stay still. It was never meant to be contained in reflection alone. It was given as a companion for movement.
We tend to domesticate spiritual practices. We turn them into private exercises that do not disrupt our patterns. A Star Word becomes something we think about rather than something that shapes how we live. We interpret it in ways that feel comfortable, ways that reinforce what we already believe about ourselves. We keep it manageable.
Churches adopt language about growth, renewal, and transformation, but often interpret those ideas in ways that preserve existing structures. We talk about becoming something new while protecting what is familiar. We use spiritual language to describe change without actually embodying it.
If your Star Word is real, it will meet you in motion. It will challenge the ways you have defined it. It will call you into situations where it feels inconvenient, uncomfortable, or costly. The question is: where is it asking you to move now.
When you received your Star Word in January, you interpreted it through the lens of where you were standing then — your circumstances, your questions, your sense of what the year might require. Easter changes the lens. The risen Christ is already ahead of you, already present in the places where life is unfolding, already at work in the situations you have not yet entered. Which means your word may mean something in April that it could not have meant in January because you have traveled further into the year it was given for. Hold it again and ask the question: where is this word asking me to go that I have not yet been willing to go?
Application:
Take your Star Word and intentionally act on it in a public or relational way today—initiate something that requires visible engagement with another person.
Writing Prompt:
How have I limited my Star Word to something safe instead of allowing it to move me?
Prayer:
God of new things, open my eyes to where you are already at work. Let the word I have received lead me into action, not comfort. Amen.