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Are you one of those people who chooses one word to represent the year ahead? I like to do that, and I’ve been doing it for the past few years. I remember that my word for 2013 was Love. And my word for 2014 was Explore.

This year, I am doing something a little different. Instead of choosing one word to represent the coming year, I am choosing two. That’s right. I’m totally breaking the rules and choosing two words for 2015. This year is going to be so full of so many things that two words are needed.

Brave Adventure.

Those are my two words to represent 2015. The main things I know are going to happen this year include two very big moves. I’m moving back to Indiana, and Travis is moving to South Korea. I think that spending a year in this situation can definitely be called an adventure.

I know it’s going to be hard with the time difference and being on the other side of the world and all — but I choose to think of it as an adventure. I know I’ll be spending as much time in South Korea as possible and going to a new place can be frightening. I’m choosing this word Adventure so that when it gets hard and when I get sad and when I get scared (all three are most definitely going to happen), I can remember to see it as what it really is — an adventure.

In the dictionary, Adventure is is described as

1. an exciting or unusual experience.

2. participation in exciting undertakings or enterprises

3. a bold, usually risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome

Yep, that about sums it up. I think that’s exactly what this year holds — excitement, unusual, bold, risky, hazardous, and most definitely uncertain.

And, at least with me, when unusual, risky, hazardous, and uncertain are all put together, it also means fear. I know for a fact there are going to be times this year where I’m going to be scared. Scared to move to a new house I’ve never lived in, scared of being alone, scared of creepy crawlies in the night, scared for my husband’s safety, scared of flying to the other side of the world, scared of trying new foods, scared of new and uncertain and risky things. Just a whole lot of fear going on people!

And that’s why I knew Brave also needed to be included. I don’t want to be afraid during this entire adventure. I want to be excited and thrilled and joyful! I want to take it all in and enjoy each moment. I want to be brave, to have courage.

I had this dream right after we find out about the move to South Korea. It was so symbolic of what this year has to offer that it could have only come from God. In that dream, I was told not to let the fear of doing something keep me from doing it. I was told that if I let fear rule, I could miss out on some of the best days of my life. It was all so clear and I woke up with these words ringing in my ears: “You could have had the best day of your life if you hadn’t been too scared to join in.”

I knew then as I know now. And as I’ll probably need to remind myself every single month of 2015. I don’t want a fearful routine this year. I want a brave adventure. 

It’s a lot like this quote from “Let’s All Be Brave” by Annie F. Downs (a book I read in 2014 probably as God’s way of preparing me for this coming year).

We don’t screw up by saying yes to the wrong things; we screw up by letting all the floats in the parade pass us by and never jumping on one of them for a ride to the end.

It’s kind of nuts how much God speaks to me through words. OK, that probably sounds normal since we as humans speak in words all the time. What I mean is the written word — through books. Whatever book I happen to be reading (by total chance) just happens to be filled with words I need. Filled with things that completely resonate with me and the situation I’m in.

Just one day before finding out the South Korea news, I started reading the book “Breathing Room” by Leeana Tankersley. In it, she talks a lot about moving to Bahrain with her husband who is in the military.

In one chapter, she is talking about this meat market down the street from where she lives and how she’s scared to go inside. She thinks it must be absolutely awful and she never goes in … until the very last day before they move back to the States. Here is her quote.

The Meat Market feels like the nastiest, most foreign place on earth … until we go inside. We see that there’s nourishment — like we’ve never encountered — waiting for us.

I read that the day after finding out about South Korea. The day I was thinking South Korea sounded like the nastiest, most foreign place on earth and I didn’t want to go, nor did I want my husband to go. And these words reminded me that there may just be nourishment like I’ve never known there. Perhaps on this brave adventure, I will find God in ways I’d never imagined. Perhaps I will feel His presence even more in such a foreign place. Perhaps this brave adventure awaiting me is exactly what I need in this time in my life. 

How beautiful to go to a foreign place and therein find yourself. — Leeana Tankersley

Every single year of our lives has the potential to rip us to pieces, tear our marriages apart, break our hearts, and destroy our joy. And every single year of our lives lies a brave adventure awaiting us. A brave adventure that can bring us closer to God, make us whole, strengthen our marriages, and bring us joy — if we only let it.

I don’t know about you but I’m ready for a Brave Adventure. Will you join me?