How often have you thought to yourself that you were made for more? That you could be doing something better with your life? Well those tiny but powerful thoughts have been in the back of my mind for several months now.
I am a 25 year old woman who wants to make a difference in the lives of others. How do I do that exactly when the world is telling me I should be married and putting money in to a 401k? What do I do when the world is suffocating my thoughts with things I want but don’t really need? Last weekend I was hosting a bridal shower and this weekend I attended a baby shower. My world seems to be consumed by the things my heart desires. My heart sunk a little yesterday when I was picking out the cutest little outfit for a baby girl. I stood there in the store wondering why this isn’t my life. I want to be a wife and I want to be a mother more than anything in this world, but God whispered to me “not yet.” It isn’t my season to live out those things and that is ok. It is ok to be in a different place than those around me. It is ok to be happy for them and it is more than ok to embrace the season of life that I am in.
When I said yes to this journey I said no to a list of other things. My job, my boyfriend, my family, my plans for the next year, etc. It has been difficult but I know it is for a greater purpose. In Donald Miller’s latest book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, he talks about writing a better story for your life. This book is incredible and I encourage you to read it. Donald says this “If I have a hope, it’s that God feels as he writes the world, sitting over the planets and placing tiny people in tiny wombs. It’s that God sat over dark nothing and wrote you and me specifically, in to the story and put us in with the sunset and the rainstorm as though to say, Enjoy your place in my story. The beauty of it means you matter, and you can create within it even as I have created you.”
That hit me like a ton of bricks. The God of the universe who formed me in my mother’s womb 25 years ago cares about my story in this life. He wants me to know that I have the ability to create and live a better life for myself and those around me. Knowing that, I am more than confident that this journey is for me. This is about me making a choice to write a better story for my life. Many of you have asked or maybe even wondered why I’m leaving for 11 months. Why can’t I just go for a week or even a month to some country in Africa? Do I realize how long that is? Do I understand that I will be missing out on birthdays, holidays, and weddings for the next year? Yes, I do understand all of those things but the Lord has called me to do something great for His kingdom. He is allowing me the opportunity to write a better story for Kalah. One that she’s always wanted to write. The story where she gets to change the world, even if it’s only a little bit. The story where she gets to fall in love with her maker.
Donald says “The world needs for us to have courage. The world needs for us to write something better.” Your story may be different than mine and that is the beauty of this life, we all have the ability to write our own stories. Do you know that it’s possible to write a better story? I think often times we get bogged down in thinking that we have sinned too much or fallen too far for God’s grace to reach us. Don’t give in to that lie because it isn’t true. We all have the ability to write a better story, because “Jesus is the hope that will not disappoint.”
I pray that whoever is reading this right now realizes that we were all made for a purpose. Your calling might not be missions. You might be scared to take a leap of faith and answer whatever call he’s given you …don’t be. It’s never too late to write a better story for your life, for your family, for your community. I’ll end with this from Donald’s book “A good storyteller doesn’t just tell a better story, though. He invites other people into the story with him, giving them a better story too.”
May we all have the courage to invite others in to our stories.
