Voice.

This five letter word that holds 2015 in the palm of its hand can be a noun or a verb. It's a distinctive sound belonging to each of us. It is defined by words spoken, shouted, sang, whispered, and written. It measures our character and qualities, our aspirations & dreams, our hurts, our gratitude, our excitement or even disappointment, our cheering, and even our secrets that only journals hold. Our voice defines our lives with the simplicity, yet complexity, of the words we choose to use. 

I've been coughing a lot lately and haven't had much of a voice ... but at the same time, the voice I've found within the depths of my soul over the past two weeks is more than I could have hoped for as one year comes to an end and another begins. In the quiet of these winter days, I've found new ways to identify what the word voice means to me and what it means to the people around me too. Our voices, defined as a noun or a verb, are real, alive, and worth focusing on, worth thinking about, worth giving attention to.

We each have a distinctive voice. One we were born to carry. One that has enormous authority over our lives. We have a voice that can influence for good, or for bad, and everything we think and do and feel is the foundation of it - of who we are through our actions, and through our words.

As a new year begins, it is my prayer that I would be able to identify the sound of God's voice more clearly than ever before. That I would not just identify it, but that I would listen to it. That it would be a voice that drowns out all others and somehow manages to be the biggest and best part of me -  teaching me, knowing me, and changing me - not just my habits, or the way I dress, or how I treat people, but that what I say with the voice God has given to me would change my heart, my hopes and my entire being. 

I want my voice - my God given voice - to be a beautiful song that harmonizes with the world I live in. A voice that doesn't outshine His voice, but one that accompanies God in a gracious and humble way. 
That in an unhurried, quiet, and immersed way, my voice would reveal a God that can change life in every sort of way with typewriter keys playing the tune that has been orchestrated for me to be a part of sharing with the world.

Yes, in 2015, my voice will be a voice that is used just the way God has intended.