Epiphany Star Words

Tomorrow is Epiphany, and in worship, along with communion and ordination/installation of new elders and deacons ... for the past several years at PCC we have been giving out "star words."  On paper stars there are written words that are a gift to receive for the coming year to see how that word might keep coming up in your life! Not always something YOU need to do, but maybe simply something to pay attention to, or to be ready to receive from someone else. Words like: forgiveness, grace, wholeness, integrity.  While I don't presume that everyone holds onto their star much longer than worship that morning, I am always delighted when someone takes the time to tell me what their word has meant to them or how it has surprised them sometime during the year.

Here is what PCC member Lanny Parks wrote about her "star words" ... 

       It’s almost Epiphany and that means that Star Words will be distributed on Sunday: those little pieces of colored paper that contain a word to help guide each of us in the coming year. I, for one, look forward to receiving mine.
The first year of the Star Words my word was ‘restraint.’ Oh, how I agonized over this one. There were so many things in my life that seemed to be running amok, and I struggled with the application of this concept. I considered multiple meanings and tried to understand how ‘restraint’ was going to help me when my inclination was to go full-force into solutions and resolutions. If nothing else, it restrained me by simply being foremost in all my planning.
The second year I had two words. In January my word was ‘learning.’ I loved that word! My father always said that I would have stayed in college my whole life as long as he continued to pick up the tab - and he was right. But, I learned that there are many other ways of learning and they are not all academic; neither are they pleasant. Life has a way of providing lessons that we would rather not learn.
Fortunately, in the fall when some of us participated in the freshman welcome service at Washington College, Pastor Sara once again brought out the Star Words as a way of inviting the new students to accept another kind of guidance for their new phase of life. All of us were encouraged to take a new word. This time my word was ‘peacefulness.’ And, oh! how I needed that one! After the year of ‘restraint’ and the time of ‘learning’ difficult lessons, I really needed some ‘peacefulness’ in my own life.
As I look forward to whatever word chance or divine guidance will assign to me this year, I know that I have already chosen another to partner with it. My co-word is ‘attend.’ Once more, this is an uncomfortable word with multiple meanings: it means ‘show up’, it means ‘listen’, it means ‘pay attention’, and as I struggle with all of its ramifications in my daily inner and outward life, I know that it will somehow enrich me all the days of this new year and I can hardly wait to see what its partner word will be.

Lanny W. Parks

1/4/13