It’s yours…own it
At the end of the journey our story is all that will remain of us. It can either cause us to be hastily forgotten or to live on for many generations inspiring confidence and encouragement to those coming up behind us. One thing I know for sure is that everyone at some point thinks about the impact their presence or life will make when they are gone. That sometimes causes anxiety when one is not sure of their significance.
Your story is a definite legacy not because it will touch lives when you are gone but because it touches lives now whether positively or negatively. It’s really up to you to make the strides in the direction you would want to make the most impact. It may not be well manicured and packaged into a two hour biography on the big screen some day to fetch millions at the box office but it is still a part of history that proves you were once here.
What is troubling you in your story today? Is it things not going according to the life plan you made in High school?, is it a relationship finally coming into a point of revelation that despite the vows you shared only one of you meant them? Is it voices in your head that constantly remind you of how stupid you are for believing that YOU could actually amount to something in this lifetime given your track record?
Whatever it may be I’ve come with a message for you to say own your story, don’t distance yourself from it with shame and remorse or waste time wishing it were different and asking why me?. Just ungrudgingly take it as it is because you can’t take a fantasy to God and hope that your faith will somehow bring it to pass. God sees what is in your heart and that is what he deals with not the socially acceptable image you would want to portray.
Adam where are you?
It’s funny how we rush to hide from God, picking out the finest shrubs and intricately sewing them together to mask our nakedness as if we can actually pull a fast one on the Creator. I think we need a reminder every once in a while that though He asks “…Adam, where art thou?” it’s not because He doesn’t know or He cannot see us. Its really because there is a disconnect between reality and what we think is reality and He simply asks to get us to pay attention to ourselves and where we are so that we can consciously come home.
Our story as humanity is not very different from that of the prodigal son. We invest in learning and knowing and we squander our mental resources sometimes creating the very tools of our destruction. Then when we are inevitably left broke and broken we find our way home and offer to be less than the sons we are because we feel we have lost the right to be rightful heirs. We basically assign ourselves to prison for punishment even when our Father extends a loving hand to us and slaughters the fattest calf in celebration over our return.
Further to that some of our brothers who manage to stay home and behave feel that Father is showing favouritism yet our Father is no respecter of persons. He loves and loves us all regardless of the type of sin that has tainted our lives. Understand this is not a free pass to do what thou wilt, because even if you chose to go renegade it is never God who pays for our decisions but us. God is simply good enough and mercifully loving enough to raise us up from the abyss of our mistakes to take us under his protective wing and rehabilitate us to meaningful functionality.
The power in YOUR story
I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned how thankful I am for people who share their stories freely because they never know the kind of impact it makes on the next person. I’ve come across stories that have instantly answered questions that used to live on repeat in my mind. I’ve come across stories that have given me permission to pick myself up and press on and I’ve even come across stories that have challenged me to stop needing to see first before I believe. As my story stands now I am taking my time to consciously engage with every aspect of my life bringing the dark corners to light so that I may be set free from the anxieties that I will never be good enough.
My prayer today is that God touches our hearts and gives us the courage to share the hidden aspects of our characters not that we may be judged by ourselves and others but that we may finally set about doing His business. That we may detach from its-all-about-me and attach to its-all-about-Him-making-us and how we can add the value we were always made to add. May He reach into the depths of our minds and release us from the voice of doubt and may we know the peace that surpasses all understanding..Amen
