The Hope I Seek - Empower My Life

I have long since given up on making New Years’ resolutions. I spent hours between Christmas and New Years’ Eve thinking about what I wanted to change in my life. As one who journaled most of my life, I wrote down these inspired ideas for the new year. Invariably, a month or two into the year, I gave up hope of accomplishing my resolutions.

Sometime around the end of my 40’s, I was invited to make the Exercises of St. Ignatius. This journey changed the way I lived my life. I incorporated many of the prayers and tenets in my personal life. Toward the end of each year, I asked God to help me see the year in review through God’s eyes and to guide my thoughts on what I needed to change in the coming year. One thing was usually inspired from this practice – one intentional focus for the year.

This brings me to what God revealed is my focus for 2025. Empower my life.

In the last few months of the year, I heard deeply and clearly, God’s voice beckoning me. If I’m being honest, it felt like God was pleading with me, “Empower your life.” I asked God, What does that mean? What does that look like? God reminded me of the scripture 2 Timothy 1: 6-7 where we are remined that God did not give us a spirit of fear but a spirit of power. After hearing this reminder, I looked up the scripture in my bible. I read again where Paul writes to young Timothy:

“Stir into flame the gift of God…for God did not give us a spirit of fear but rather of power.”

I could not believe it! These same words are underlined in my bible, and I wrote in the space next to the words, “August 2006. Amen! I can do this! I was made for this! Thank you, Lord.” Reading those words took me back to what I was encountering in August 2006. As I sat back and closed my eyes, God said plainly, “The time is now to empower your life. I made you for this purpose. Stir up the gifts I have given you. I need you. My people need you.”

I feel both excitement and fear when I hear God’s message to me. I’m still grappling with the words to describe the why of my fear. Empower seems like such a strong word. To say, I am empowering my life seems conceited and prideful which is something I have fought for years to carve out from my way of being. I heard messages early on in my life that reinforced this fear I was feeling as God called me to empower my life.

I grew up with my maternal grandmother teaching me to say “I’m black and I’m proud.” She would light up like a Christmas tree when her grandchildren uttered these words. And the louder and stronger we chanted, the sparkle in her eyes grew brighter and her smile wider. I took this black pride into my adult life.

Coupled with this “black pride,” I also took the words my father angrily pounded into my ego that I had to be better, stronger, louder than anyone else in the room to be noticed and respected. And that I did. For years. Most of the rooms I walked into were filled with white colleagues, mostly men but also many women. It didn’t take long to be known as the “angry black woman.” This was a label I detested and that would eventually rob me of my voice, my self-belief, my power. Looking back now, I know instead of feeling empowered, I grew smaller, quieter, lesser in these environments. It turned my God-given charisma and passion into a meekness, humbleness, quietness that stifled my true self. I wasn’t being entirely my authentic self and the woman God created me to be.

Over the last 20 years, God slowly guided me to step into God’s spirit of power. Learning to trust myself to stand fully in the person God created me to be. Charismatic. Strong. A force for hope and healing. A deep listener yet also one who is called to speak boldly with compassion and joy. A woman of faith who trusts my inner voice because it is the Spirit of God breathing in me and through me.

I continued leaning into God’s spirit of power over the last year, as God did great work within my soul and showed me the gift of grace over pride. God’s grace is my strength, my power. Even as God was deepening this lesson in me, I encountered an experience these past few months that left me feeling disregarded, dismissed, disrespected. Even with all of my practice, it took me back to those days of feeling like I needed to show up smaller, quieter, lesser so that others would feel more comfortable with me.

I brought this struggle to my spiritual director. The Holy Spirit spoke directly to me through her when she said. “Kim, the chains have already been broken, let them fall. Be free. Your identity is in Christ. You are imago dei. You are a unique image of God. Empower your life through the power of Christ.”

I have reflected on these words for weeks. God showed me how to empower my life. “My grace is all you need. My power works best in your weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9) My deepest prayer and hope I seek for 2025 is embracing my weaknesses, meaning knowing I am enough just how God created me, and in doing so, allowing the power of Christ to rest on me, in me, and through me and empower me to be a bold force for hope and healing that God is asking me to be.

What is the grace you seek for 2025? How might God be calling you to empower your life?

My deepest prayer and hope for you is that you, too, will empower your life. That you can know, as I discovered, that those chains that bind you are already broken. Hear them fall. Be free. Know that power, truth, and assurance come from God. You are imago dei. You are a unique image of God. Empower your life through the power of Christ. Amen.

Going Deeper:

• Revisit the reflections of our writers in the “Christ Has No Voice But Yours series” and allow their voices to help give you the courage and strength to empower your life.

Photo by: Joey Kyber on Pexels.com

Thank you!

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Kim Scott

Kim joined the Ignatian Ministries team in September of 2024. Kim has enjoyed a 20-year career as a Human Resources executive, working in the hospitality, medical, and entertainment industries. As she transitioned into mid-life, her desire for finding a deeper meaning and purpose for her life led her to the grace of adoption and then to begin a new career in church ministry. For almost 20 years, Kim walked with countless souls as a spiritual mentor, helping others discover their inner life and unique meaning and purpose. Kim describes her life’s purpose as being a force and a voice for hope and healing. She lives in Henderson, NV with Gary, her husband of 30+ years and Kiara, their young adult daughter.