There are some days where you are reminded that life is not innately glamourous. Yes, life is beautiful. Yes, life is good. Yes, life is exciting. Yes, life is worthwhile. But life is not always "glamourous." In fact, if life was always glamourous, we would live in a perfect world that is free from such things as bad hair days, temper tantrums, rush hour traffic and every other mundane and terrible part of adulthood. Let's face it, as young children most (if not all) of us dreamed, at some point, of being a superstar at something. We dreamed of private jets, amazingly exotic adventures and the exciting opportunity to chase dreams that made us look forward to growing up. For most, however, those tightly held dreams of glamour, fame and splendor were never fully realized and we actually ended up slipping into routines where we doubt our importance, where we doubt our impact in the world and where we doubt if we will ever make good on the dreams that we traded adulthood in for. When this happens, we grow to expect the bad hair days, temper tantrums, rush hour traffic and the mundane parts of life. It's in these moments we wish Peter Pan were real and that he would bring us to a magical place where we never have to grow up but subsequently, we realize that Peter Pan is simply a character that we will never meet or fly away with. Life is not a Disney movie and it is not perfect!
It's in those moments were we are looking in the rear view mirror of our life and we are attempting with all our might to make it so we don't look like "that" person whose life is a spiraling tornado of unglamorousness. We so desperately want others to believe we have it all figured out and we so strongly want others to feel we are living a life of perfection, that we in return compromise our ability to just trust and believe that God has better things planned for us than our pride could ever accomplish on its own. We forget time and time again that we are so wonderfully and beautifully made that we don't have to bear the weight of cross such as social comparison, pride and selfishness. We forget that our worth does not come from statuses, accolades, people wishing that they have what we have and looking like we just rolled off a red carpet. Those worldly things are nice and they make us feel good for an amount of time that has a very short shelf life but they don't last. Ultimately, if you spend your days on Earth chasing recognition and worldly things you will get just that... the world and it will hit you like a semi! It may be glamourous for a short amount of time and everyone may love you for a little while but eventually the things of this world will be gone and people will move on to the next best thing because what ever worldly things life can throw your way... it's temporary and not eternal.
In the end, the thing that will matter the most in your life is not your ability to live a life of worldly glamour and perfection but rather your willingness to trust, believe and follow Jesus. Its not about each of us having it all figured out on our own; rather it is about learning to accept who were were created to become, while being where we were meant to be and fulfilling the roles we were called to satisfy. When we fully hand our lives over to God and when we decide to accept the endless grace upon grace and boundless mercy upon mercy that has been promised to each of us; we surrender to a God that can turn all of our shortcomings into strengths. When we surrender to such an amazingly mighty and capable God, we are provided for, set apart and loved even when the world doesn't think we are worthy of much. So often, we rob ourselves of authentic happiness and fulfillment by thinking glamour and a pre-packaged perception of perfection are the ultimate key to happiness. But that is not factual. Actually, happiness is living in unity with God, walking side by side with him and fulfilling the "impossible" sized plans that only he can fulfill. Happiness is about handing over control to a beyond capable God in order to be led to greater possibilities than you could have ever completed on your own. We can acquire happiness through knowing that we are God's and that God is ours.
So today, I'm choosing to completely embrace where I am and what I have been called to do rather than wishing that I were living life as someone else, somewhere else. Today, I am choosing to banish the social comparison and pride that has so often clouded my ability to trust God and his perfect timing. Won't you, dear friend, join me in embracing the what ifs that only God can orchestrate. Let each of us attune our hearts to what God wants us to accomplish during our "unglamorous" days here on Earth. Let us be steadfast in praying for authentic God led direction for our lives and let us create a community through which women can come to know that whatever the world tries to sell us will eventually fade but that God is eternal and worthy of being the center of our souls, hearts and minds. Let us choose to focus on God and the uniquely beautiful moments that he blesses us with. I pray that we never fail to realize that God creates such beauty in our day to day experiences we will choose to look beyond the unglamorous moments to discover that God is so very much for us and he is fulfilling beautiful and amazing promises in our lives. What we look for we will find and what treasures we store in our hearts will dictate our decisions and thoughts. Therefore, let us always look to God so that we may find him so deeply our lives are radiantly changed from the inside out and let us store his promises deeply within our hearts so our decisions become more and more like his with every breath we take. Let us create within this broken world, a community of women who are so on fire for God and let us not allow a quest for worldly glamour and worldly things deter from our ability to spread the message of God's love and salvation with others. Until next time friends, let us strive to be "those" women. Let us collectively be the ones whose lives were a total mess but through the acceptance of grace and salvation were radically changed from a mess into a message and who's trials turned them into testimonies that reflect that awesomeness of God, his love and his plans for our lives.
