Today I was published. An letter written as a simple email to someone I know stirred something deep in him, and he asked to publish it.
I bumbled for words and finally explained.
I had planned to share that story at some point, when God said it was time. For those initial few moments, I went from feeling honored to figuring out how to let him tell the story and still be able to write it and publish it as my story. In the flash of thought, somehow my spirit had the sense to ask how I would still be able to tell my story, and just behind my ear, in a calm and gentle whisper, I heard, "Jerri, it's not your story."
The flurry of thought stopped.
No, it isn't my story. It's His story.
I had been waiting to tell it until He said the time was right, until He said it would bless people.
"Well, if you think it'll bless people..." I heard my self say.
"It will," his voice came through the phone.
"Then absolutely. Share the story."
And so he did.
My name removed. Personal details graciously removed as well. There is no way to tell I had anything to do with it, and that is what I hope people see.
Often, I find myself wondering how my stories ever make a difference. They are just ordinary stories of an ordinary person. But the Lord reminds me that the Bible is full of stories of ordinary people who made an extraordinary difference. Actually, the Bible is one story...with a crazy cast of broken and messed up characters...and an insanely un-ordinary God who did extraordinary things through them...and sometimes in spite of them. It's His story.
I am His story.
So many of you feel so ordinary, and you wonder what difference your stories make...what difference your life makes. You wonder if anyone cares. He cares because your story is His story, and you may feel utterly broken and messed up...so join the cast....let Him do extraordinary things through you...and sometimes in spite of you...tell your story...and see what the wholly un-oridinary God does with it. Expect Him to do something amazing because after all...
...you are His story...
...and you an extraordinary one.
6 comments:
Hi Jerri. This posting is a huge blessing to me. I often say how I'm happy to be ordinary but then think what difference can I make? God uses everything we let Him use.
God bless
Tracy
Love this Jerri! We are His story if we are His children. Hope that it touches many lives for Him. I love your style of writing your/His story. One day you really should write it yourself, too, when He gives you the go ahead. I wish we had an afternoon to sip iced tea and just talk. I think we would find that we had so much in common.
God Bless You, my friend!
Karen King
So true, Jerri! I blog partly for me and partly because there might be someone else out there struggling with something that across the bits and bytes I can help them find their way.
Tracy, you make a world of difference! At least you make a huge difference to me, and I'm a world away.
"God uses everything we let Him use."--Yes. It really is that simple, isn't it? When I took my EMR (Emergency Medical Responder) class, I knew I would pass because God told me to take the class. If I put any effort in at all, I was going ot pass because it was God's will. Amazing how simple success is: simply do God's will. He isn't into sabotaging His own will, so if we just show up and do what we are told--as ordinary as it may look--it's going accomplish something wondrous for Him.
Karen, thank you, dear one! I would enjoy tea and talking long. Let's pray and ask Him. Who knows? We are His favorites. Maybe...
And, yes, I do expect to write it myself when He says it is time because then I know I will be mentally and emotionally able to present it without false bravado or humility, just in Truth, which is what will be the blessing.
Blessg you, dear one!
Mizzbrizz, I love that! "Across the bits and bytes I might be able to help them." I think I might put that on my wall...literal wall in the room where I write.
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