“….My Story Is NOTHING compared to yours…..” 

This is what my response was when my friend, Michael, had asked me to tell him “my story.”

He had just finished telling me his inspiring testimony that had my jaw dropped to the floor. I would have NEVER guessed in a million years that this amazing man of God had come from a past like that and had been continuing to struggle in certain areas. SO HONEST! After he had boldy told me his story, he turned to me and asked me to share mine.

My words? “I mean….My Story is nothing compared to…”

Michael stopped me in that moment. Holding my arm he said, “Stop right there and promise you will never say that again.” I was caught so off guard. It’s not like I was going to say “NO, I am not going to tell you my story. See ya!” but what was he doing? He continued to speak words of encouragement and truth into my life about my story, BEFORE he had even heard it. In that moment something else was there. Comfort, truth, and strength filled my heart and took place of the doubt, fear, and “tame version of the truth” I was originally going to tell BEFORE that moment.

Side note:  For the sake of everyone’s attention span I am making this next part brief. hah! PLEASE call me if you want to talk more. 

For those of you that do not know, I Have endured different forms of abuse during different times in my life. BUT, I have seen how God has protected me, and continues to stand IN ME. HE has always been there.  He was there in the scared 8 year old, He stroked my hair as I sat in pain, he continues to sit with me and wrap my weak body in HIS Everlasting arms.

God was even doing that in the very moment I was telling Michael “my story.”

What had been a past of telling this story and feeling shame (No joke, there were so many times I would leave out huge chunks of my life to make it “look better.”) turned into being blessed by an opportunity for me to rest in fragility. To rest in the grace of HIS PRESENCE.

I tell you this small part of my story because it is not something I “celebrate.” People do not jump up and down happy that God has given them “a trial.” However, we can find joy in the glory God will bring forth, in this small part of HIS STORY, that HE has given us as the narrators.

There may be times where you feel like God has forsaken you, that He is letting you fall by the wayside, and that you are suffering. The Lord is suffering WITH YOU. HE LOVES YOU! Jesus did not walk amongst the “perfect people,” or the “Clean.” He gathered around sinners! We are human for Pete SAKE! That’s All of us! YAY! By gathering in community and in fellowship with one another. YOU AND I have the ability to be “Jesus With skin on.” Loving one another in Joy and in Pain because of how HE FIRST LOVED US.

 

Romans 8:37-39

 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.