“God, what word can you give me before I leave this place?"
Whenever I travel, which isn’t too terribly often, (although this particular year has been more than normal for me) I always feel like I want to take advantage of new scenery, setting, and change in schedule to push harder to really hear something from Him to hang onto to get me through the next months ahead.
I woke up earlier than normal one morning, grabbed my notebook and pen, phone, and blanket and headed out to the cozy little front patio area belonging to Unit A of our beach house.
Our unit was the bottom floor of a house with two other units upstairs. We were nestled in closely with other beach houses and a narrow road paralleling the shoreline, leaving little room between our beach house and the road with passing cars, bike riders, and runners.
It was semi quiet that morning as I settled in the comfy cushioned patio chairs and propped my feet up on the matching table.
I found my favorite instrumental worship music on YouTube, set my phone to the side, opened my journal, pen in hand, and began to quietly whisper my prayers.
As the minutes passed and I prayed I began to write down scriptures that came to mind, and the thoughts that had been mulling on my mind and heart for the past few months, and to be honest, years.
The things I am always talking to God about… things like, “What do you want me to pursue?” “What should I be focusing on?” “How can I do this or that?”
…and of course, so much more… because the deep well of a woman’s heart houses endless thoughts and words, spoken and unspoken…
Out of everything I wrote down, the one sentence I want to share is this,
“YouR life is an inspiration to someone.”
I wrote this, not because I think my particular life is any more of an inspiration than anyone else’s, but because I think we all look at our lives and more often than not, hold back from sharing because we feel no one else will find value in it.
We quietly keep our thoughts, ideas, and inspiration to ourselves despite the spark that compels us to share and put out in the world what lights us up and what we think others might find value in.
We do this because we either feel too insignificant to have anything of value to share, or that no one would care to hear or read it, or even because we don’t know how it all fits together in the grand scheme of our lives, our brand, our identity, or our calling.
We also hold back from sharing because we don’t want to seem too arrogant or that we’ve got it all together.
When I wrote, “Your life is an inspiration to someone.” I wasn’t only thinking about my own feelings of insecurity and doubt.
I wrote it thinking about all the people who think their life is insignificant or unworthy and that what they have to share is of little to no consequence to anyone.
I thought about how easily I discredit my own story and the things I’ve overcome, both publicly and privately, and how many more people do just the same.
I thought of how tragic it is that they discredit or fail to truly see the significance in their own life achievements and the gravity of the challenges they’ve faced.
So as a reminder to myself, and as a reminder to YOU, I am telling you as a friend, “Your life is an inspiration to someone.”
So share it. Your life. Your ideas. Your inspiration. Your thoughts. Your wisdom. Your experience. God has gifted you with goodness to share with someone.