Hey Friend,
I’m not going to lie, between house projects, slowly emerging from quarantine, and trying to keep up with an eleven month old, I’ve struggled to know what to write. Of course the topics I could write about are endless, but knowing what you and I both need to hear right now is a struggle.
I prayed about what to write and didn’t feel confident in the small leads I thought I might be feeling, and in His true fashion, the Lord did not confirm what I would be writing about until right before I sat down to write.
For those of you that have been with me since the beginning (hey Mom and Christian! 👋🏼), know how Against the Grain (ATG) began. For those of you that don’t, I left behind my full time job with benefits in the Fall of 2017. My step of faith was anxiety inducing and could have been empowering had I not been so worried about what everyone else was thinking, judging, saying etc. Through the mess of emotions and almost an entire year passing, ATG was born. The contents have slightly shifted after becoming a mother, but the goal, in short, has remained the same: to learn a different way. Leaving a good job, benefits, and coworkers I loved didn’t make sense, but there are few leaps of faith God has asked me to take that felt logical at the time. I was highly stressed and felt completely unfulfilled in that job, but how do you walk away from something like that? I felt stuck and like I had no other options, and God’s “option” of “just quit” sounded ludicrous. But God was showing me there was a different way for me to live. It involved walking by faith, having a very tight budget, saying no to a lot of things, but I see now how he was working in me and refining me in the time after I quit my job, to when I became Lucy’s mom.
When God reminded me of how this dream started, I remembered it began by learning a different way. In many ways that is still at the heart of ATG because I want you to know, through Jesus, you are fully known, never alone, and can and will achieve your unique purpose. Sometimes journeying to a place where you feel known, empowered, and encouraged to live out your purpose, comes from learning a different way to live.
I feel this is so pivotal at a time like this when we are in the midst of a pandemic. For some, things are slowly returning to business as usual, but for a lot of us, we are having to deal with a new normal. Finding ways to adapt will be the difference between whether we thrive or are frustrated by this season.
Aside from a pandemic, this can also be said of our lives in general. How we choose to handle the things in our lives that aren’t working can refine us or destroy us.
Pandemic or “normalcy”. Solid marriage or on the rocks. Mom of the year or feeling like you’ve failed. Marathon runner or falling off the couch because you were too lazy to get up and get what you couldn’t reach so you fell trying (I’ve been there!). We all have things in our life that aren’t working. When you are triggered by something, do you stop to ask yourself why that comment or incident triggered you or do you fixate on the other person and assign the blame to them? Do you stuff your anger but put on the face of compliance until you burst into an ugly, irrational mess? Do you fail to be honest with those around you and later become resentful because your needs aren’t being met and you think “well I can’t have (fill in need or want here) because I’m too busy taking care of everyone else?!” I know I’m guilty of a few of these.
We all have things that seem too hard to fix, too out of reach and like we have no options to move forward so we are just stuck with what we have. What is that area in your life? I challenge you to ask the Holy Spirit to guide you and see if there is a different way God wants you to live, a different approach or perspective He wants you to take.
He is for you and He loves you and I’m cheering for you too!
Until next time, lots of love, friends!