Okay okay okay. I don’t wanna preach, but I’m gonna preach. This is a topic that I feel so strongly about so I thought I would take a whack at it.
I want to talk about shame. The weight of shame and the power we subconsciously give shame.
The past three months, I’ve noticed a pattern in conversations with either the locals or my squad mates. Somehow, we always find ourselves talking about what we are shameful for and how in the past or even currently it keeps us from allowing ourselves to be fully free and living the lives God built for us.
I want to encourage every single person that reads this that your testimony is POWERFUL. Your testimony has the ability to transform hearts. It has that power because your story was written by the best storyteller of ALL time. If we waste our time being shameful for what we have been through we aren’t allowing our stories to change lives. We are almost being selfish by not sharing and not being vulnerable.
Can you imagine if no one ever shared their stories because they were too ashamed to talk about where they fell short? We would get nowhere. Our stories bring us together. They unify us as children of God. Testimonies are meant to be told – meant to be repeated over and over and over.
If we sat around and never shared what was going on in our lives or what we were struggling with and how we saw God in all of it, we would rarely see any growth – in our lives and others around us. The enemy can take your shame and twist it into so many things that will only pull you further and further away from God.
The enemy’s goal is to detach you from God and make you believe that you deserved it. Satan wants us to be quiet. He wants to convince us that our stories or what we are going through is too much, too heavy, and that we will never be understood. Satan wants to shut us up because he knows the moment we share, the walls fall down and people start to shine. People start to feel free and see who God truly is.
You can’t fall for Satan’s schemes.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising all shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2
Do you see this?!?! You have to run your race. DESPISING ALL SHAME. I believe being vulnerable and sharing your stories is apart of running the race. As you pass by people let them know how you have seen God show up. Be a walking testimony of His GOODNESS. There is no room for shame. It will only ever destroy you. Your stories or the things you are going through will never be too much. Believe that. Trust that. RUN WITH THAT.
I promise you it will be a weight lifted off. It never once says in the bible to hide your story. Not once. Share it! Be vulnerable. Let that thing change lives.
Ministry update
I’m in AFRICA! After basically 4 days of travel my squad has made it safe and sound to Mokhotlong, Lesotho. This place is MAGIC. I can already tell this will be one of my favorite months. The weather is chilly, life is simple, and the people are loud – some of my favorite things. This month will look like serving in prison and hospital ministry, helping build a local boarding school, and simply being the hands and feet of Jesus. Mokhotlong is one of the most desolate cities in Lesotho so I will not have any access to Wi-Fi for possibly the entire three months I’m in Africa. I love every single person who reads my blogs and checks up on me. It means the world!
P.s. Hi mom and dad, Lauren, Brooke, and Cole! I’m not the one posting this blog – the storyteller leader is so don’t think I lied about not having wifi. I’m super safe. I miss you guys and I love you 🙂
