Don’t Tap Out Yet — Your Word’s Not Done with You

Feeling stuck or drifting from your Word of the Year? Don’t tap out just yet—there’s still growth ahead. Discover fresh ways to re-engage, reflect, and reap the fruit of intentional living in 2025.

May 30, 2025

For the past 15 years, I’ve been on a journey to learn from a single word for each year. That looks like this for me:

As someone commented in January of this year, that is a long time to do anything (whether than be one word for one year or 15 years of practicing anything consistently). It has been a long time, but as I was preparing for an online meet-up I hosted last week, I couldn’t help but think of what Paul spoke to the Galatian church — don’t grow weary in doing good.

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
-Galatians 6:7-9

This is true when considering fifteen years, but it is even more when applied to a single word for the whole year. It’s hard to continue to learn and grow intentionally, so today I want to share with you some tips and tricks to push-on to grow or maybe reset to learn from your word in 2025 (and there is no reason you can’t start with a Word right now. It’s never too late to be intentional!).

Here are three ways I scatter seeds in my soul, so I can harvest fruit in 2025.

Tip #1: Study

Fair warning: my 2025 Word of the Year is KNOWLEDGE. Study plays perfectly into my 2025 Word, but as I look back at the different words/years, I see the most growth when I am intentional about the things I ingest mentally.

You most likely have a preferred way to learn — auditory, visual, kinetic, etc. You might be a reader or a podcast-in-the-background type of person. Whatever way you best learn, I challenge you to dive into that form of learning (books, audiobooks, podcasts, YouTube videos, in-person lectures)

Here is one more hint as you dive into your Word this year. Don’t just learn randomly, but attempt to educate yourself on your Word from every angle possible. It’s a tactic I’m taking this year to learn more about prayer.

An Example of Study

I’ve read three books on prayer to this point in the year:

Praying Like Monks; Living Like Fools by Tyler Stanton
Every Moment Holy by Douglas McKelvey
Armchair Mystic: How Contemplative Prayer Can Lead You Closer to God by Father Mark E Thibodeaux

The first is a book from a protestant, evangelical pastor who has experienced church much like I have throughout my life. His prayer life is much richer and fuller, but in general, it looks like what I’ve always known prayer to be.

Every Moment Holy is a book of prayers written by an artist. McKelvey grew up in an evangelical church, but struggled with his faith when (among other things) the preacher committed fraud. During this timeframe, he discovered the Common Book of Prayer and later began writing prayers for all the moments in life, both the sacred and mundane. I’m in my second reading and prayerful reflection through the book, and I find it a great way to begin my morning prayer time.

The final book, written by a Catholic priest, is a practical book on prayer from the ancient tradition of contemplative prayer. It is an encouragement to combine the liturgical tradition with the spontaneous tradition, while incorporating Christian meditation. The book is accessible to the average reader (like me) because Father Thibodeaux originally wrote it for the high school students he taught theology.

What are you studying this year?
How are you approaching it from multiple angles?
Do you need to look for more ways to see your Word?

Tip #2: Meditate

woman in black shirt and gray pants sitting on brown wooden bench — Photo by Katerina May on Unsplash

As I read about prayer, specifically contemplative prayer, I find meditation to be a key part of the practice. Whenever I mention meditation to those with a background like mine, red flags appear. If you grew up like I did, you were taught that mediation is a gateway for Satan to enter the soul. But that isn’t what I’ve been practicing or learning about.

The forms of meditation feared by so many Christians involve emptying yourself of all thought and being filled with something else from the universe. I believe in a very real spiritual world, which can open you to an evil spirit world if you aren’t careful, but this isn’t the type of meditation I’m learning about. I’m learning to quiet my inner self so that I can intensely focus on the things I learn from my studies.

For most of us, this is a difficult practice. Quietly focusing on one subject isn’t a normal way of life in the 21st-century Western world. We are in constant motion with non-stop noise, so even when we slow down in a quiet place, we find ourselves tapping our feet and thoughts swirling.

An Example of Meditation

The subject I keep returning to in 2025 is The Lord’s Prayer. These times of meditation have been birthed out of my times of study. It began with listening to a lengthy podcast series from The Bible Project, which covered the Sermon on the Mount. It is the Lord’s Prayer that sits at the heart of this tantamount teaching of Jesus.

Adding to that podcast series, I read Dallas Willard’s The Divine Conspiracy. Willard argues that the Sermon on the Mount is the core of how we are to live as followers of Jesus, and the prayer he taught in the sermon sits at the center of his teaching.

It is the points I’ve learned from these and other sources that enrich my meditation times.

Practically speaking, I begin by quieting my mind. I might repeat to myself, “I choose you, God,” while I focus on my breathing. It usually happens in the morning, so I’ll listen for the birds singing or even the hum of the refrigerator fan. When I’ve quieted my mind, I’ll process through the Lord’s Prayer: who God is (Father, in heaven, holy and set apart), the establishment of God’s Kingdom in my life and the world around me, the needs and worries of the day, forgiveness, and so on.

Do you incorporate meditation into your daily prayer practice?
What do you find yourself meditating on?

Tip #3: Contemplate

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Until a few years ago, I would have lumped meditation and contemplation together; however, historically, there is a distinct difference between them. In a religious or spiritual sense, contemplation means seeing God in the world around us.

I’ve found that I see my Word in ways I wasn’t expecting when I keep my eyes open while watching movies, listening to music, or walking in nature. A couple of memorable examples of this were my first year of FREEDOM and this last year of CONTENT.

An Example of Contemplation

In that first year, I recall stumbling upon a YouTube video of BMX biker Danny MacAskill riding in the open spaces of Scotland. The wide open vistas painted a picture for me of the Freedom I was looking for. Last year, while walking through a flea market, I came across an artist who perfectly illustrated my word 'Content' by contrasting consuming online content with living in contentment.

A few weeks ago, Kia and I drove through New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado. The beauty of the Southwest was on display everywhere we looked: the vast expanses of the high plains dotted with cattle, rocky cliffs painted with every shade of red, and thunderstorms that literally rocked the car as we drove through.

In a year of KNOWLEDGE, I couldn’t help but concede, “What do I really know?” I was reminded of God’s interaction with Job:

Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone—
while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?
-Job 38:4-7

What have you seen around you that informs your Word of the Year?

What are you learning from your Word in 2025?

We’re nearing the midway point of 2025. It’s a great time to pull your Word of the Year back up and consider what you are learning from it. Is it work, yes, but it is the work that changes and transforms us.

What are you learning from your 2025 Word of the Year?

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