Thinking Aloud

To start from part one, click here.

Woo-hoo!

Thank you so much for all of you who are joining in the 21-day challenge to wrap up this series. As of Monday night almost 300 of you left a comment!

My type A, get-it-done, let’s-go personality wanted to dive in to the rest of my story right away. But as I sat in church recently I felt God tugging on my heart.

It turned out I needed to get something settled with Him first.

You see, I felt like I was letting God down.

Anyone else ever feel like this?

“Lord,” I whispered, “I just want to hear you say ‘Well done, good and faithful servant…”

And I started to fill in the rest with, “…so I need to change my story—I need to do MORE, be MORE, grow MORE.”

But then a Voice my heart knows seemed to ask a question.

What does a good and faithful servant do?

I paused, considering…

Listens and obeys.

And just like that, the answer came—both to the question and the striving in my story.

You see, we are not the Author…we are much-loved servants. We listen to the voice of our Master and live out what we hear. Because of Jesus, we don’t have to do, be, strive MORE.

We’re already accepted. We’re already loved. We’re already enough.

When we explore our story from that place, it becomes not a burden but an ADVENTURE—a glorious unfolding of all God has in store.

I’ve heard novelists declare they don’t know how a story will end until they write it. They say this with a smile and it’s clearly the part of the process that most delights them.

I hope we can be that way too…not forcing pur story, lining up plans, demanding our plot. But instead receiving, rejoicing, reveling in the truth that the Author LOVES us.

In light of that happy-heart news, I’ll say it again…

Woo-hoo!

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TODAY’S QUESTION:
Here’s a light-hearted look at different ways we approach our stories…

The Princess – She wants her story to be perfect and strives to make it so. She’s got a pen and she’s not afraid to use it!

The Procrastinator – She’s waiting for “happily ever after” to come. You can often hear her saying, “When X happens then I’ll….”

The Planner – She prefers lists to stilly stories. If it can’t be planned and checked off, why bother including it in the plot?

Holley:
I’ll confess…I’ve played all of those roles in the story of my life. The one I most often tend to be is The Princess. What about you? How can we approach our stories differently the next three weeks?

Purpleclick:
All of us probably have been one of the three at some point in our lives. I’m probably more a Planner and a Princess, in that my middle name is “Excellence”!
I like to do things well, to the best of my ability at any given time, and to have things well planned, details looked into, etc.
I know nothing/no one is perfect and that God sometimes lets things go “wrong”… but I don’t want it to be due to negligence… that it’s indeed something God-intended rather than a natural consequence.

(January 27, 2010 at 02.03AM) – so I can find my comment amongst the many.

Holley responds to some comments:
I am reading all of your comments and loving what you are sharing! And you have come up with some great names to add to the list…Pray-er, Pleaser, you are creative! Thanks so much for encouraging me and helping me grow. I love having these conversations with all of you!

- Dayspring  blog by Holley Garth -