#lovewhatIdo - lovewhatUdo!

The start of a new year is always full of possibilities and plans, don’t you find? I have a list of projects and opportunities for 2024 which is brimming with fun, excitement – and hard work.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve started January by seeking God for a specific word for the year. Not a verse, not a sentence, just one word. This year began a little differently. In December, a friend encouraged me to take up a new avenue of creativity – doodling!

Now, I’ve scratched and scribbled with pen on paper while chatting on the phone or listening to a lecture with the best of you. But I’ve never thought of trying to develop doodling as a skill. Until now.

I went out and bought a couple of notebooks and a pack of multi-sized pens. I browsed Pinterest. And I started doodling. I sat overlooking the ocean and drew the shapes and patterns I liked, the ones that most express the way my brain seems to flow and flutter. I drew flowers, and swirls, and dots and loops.

As my hand travelled the page, my mind wandered through the corridors of uncluttered thinking. What did God want to show me for this year? What One Word does he want me to cling to, to remember, to apply?

And I found myself drawn, not to a word, but to a verse from the Bible. In fact, a whole chapter. Isaiah 55. You might know how it starts – ‘Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!’

It’s a glorious passage proclaiming God’s provision for us, his children. It reminds us that God has a different way of going about things, a different way of thinking, than we do. We’re assured that his word always accomplishes all he intends it to, that joy is our travelling companion, and that the Lord is close when we call on him.

Probably like you, I’ve read it a hundred times. The words have lifted my spirit, cheered my heart and encouraged my thinking. Only this time, there was something more personal, more specific. Direct from heaven to me.

‘Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.’ Isaiah 55:2

Considering I was starting January feeling a little on the plump side and in need of picking up the exercise and lowering the calorie intake, I wasn’t sure this was really the right word for the right time. Delight in rich food? I’m trying to give that up!

This is the English Standard Version’s translation of the text. Being a lover of words, I often turn instead to the Amplified Version. Here’s what I found there –

‘Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight in abundance.’

Wow, that puts a different spin on things. Added to that the comment in brackets, and I’m blown away by the implication –

‘Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight in (Lit fatness) abundance.’

The Lord is offering me not plumpness of body, but fatness of the soul. I love that. He wants me to be a Michelin man on the inside, full of rolls and deeply satisfied. How will I achieve this? Through listening carefully. And eating the goodness that I hear.

About a year ago, I started jotting down what I’d been doing each day and sharing it in my social media spaces. As I recorded all the bits and pieces of the previous few hours, it dawned on me that I love what I do.

I love to write stories, creating worlds with words. I love to birth characters and communities. And I love to find the extraordinary of God in our ordinary.

I added a hashtag to my post. #lovewhatIdo.

Over a couple of weeks, the idea of a blog series began to rumble. Could I share my small stories and daily joys, loving what I do — and help others love what they do? Not a brag-fest of my accomplishments, but simply an openness with others at how Jesus works with me — and how he can easily do the same with anyone else.

The idea floundered and faded. I got busy with other things. I stopped cataloguing the minutes and the moments.

Until the start of 2024. As I spread ink across a blank page, allowing my imagination to wander and my mind to dream, I rediscovered #lovewhatIdo – not the two-line posts, but a page of ideas.

And here’s where Isaiah 55:16 comes in. The point of all that fatness, the abundance of good things filling my soul, is about more than just me and my happiness. It’s about being able to share with others. To pass on what I hear when I ‘listen carefully.’ To break the bread of Jesus’ words and feed whoever would like a taste, knowing I won’t be depleted when I share.

So here we are. The first of the #lovewhatIdo blog series. I hope, pray and trust that this becomes a place which helps you find enjoyment in whatever your hand finds to do.

Where does it start? With listening carefully. With settling down in a quiet place with Jesus and hearing his plans and his projects.

I’ll give Isaiah the final word.

‘Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’

Until next time, may you lovewhatUdo!