SHINE.

In my mind’s eye there is a picture.

It vexes me, because it’s not particularly appealing to my personal aesthetic. I wouldn’t put it in my house and hold it as a treasure, I wouldn’t buy one at a shop. Nevertheless it has hung around in my mind for many years now, and is an often referred to analogy as I share my thoughts with other people.

There’s a glass bottle, see?

A plain old empty vessel. I don’t see a background or scenery of any kind except that maybe the bottle is on a table and there’s some soft color behind it to show off how stark and hollow it is standing there, alone. There are a pair of hands that enter the frame and they begin to pour into the vase. You’ve seen it before, as the sand builds up it creates layers of color and patterns start to emerge. To me, this picture represents our creation. We as humans are designed each in our unique way. Each an empty vessel that is filled with the tiny seeds of our makeup. The colors and patterns and nuance of our psyche settling in to their proper spaces inside of us. And we are all different.

I have often said that the greatest euphoria I’ve ever experienced is in watching someone do what they were MEANT TO DO. The thing that lights them up inside and you can see them practically GLOWING as they flourish in their own personal zone. When I see it, it’s like I am one with the creator. The one who knit us all together, the hands that I see in my mind. I feel a deep sense of pride for something I have absolutely NO responsibility for. It’s just the mere act of witnessing it that takes me to a holy place.

This may be why I enjoy teaching preschool. Those little walking science experiments bouncing around and LIGHTING UP as they experience the newness and wonder in the ordinary. I just love watching them test limits and find boundaries and EXPLORE the world as they were meant to do. It’s why I am constantly awe-struck by my own children. Watching them develop and grow into the humans they are purposed to be.

Last night I went to a Women’s dessert at my church.

The woman who was speaking is the founder of Courage Worldwide  an organization dedicated to lifting the broken, particularly children caught in the web of sex trafficking. Jenny spoke about her own life experience. About getting to 40 and having nothing to show for those years of her life. She went on to describe how encouraging people is her calling, and fills her up. Expressing all those traits about her that brought her to where she is now. Living a life that impacts others and, though it is terrifying and heartbreaking, fulfills the desires of her heart. Her talk was full of quotes that rang inside me and chimed along with the same song that my own heart sings.

She affirmed for me what I have felt building in these last weeks. As I have gone through this process of moving my blog to a more shareable platform and explored the world of guest writing I am feeling at once nervous and exhilarated. Is this the THING? I DO feel all lit up inside as I write. Even feel proud when people say that something I’ve written connected for them and they felt KNOWN. This is what I want to keep doing. I want to encourage people with this thing inside me.

Being the visual person I am, I wanted something to keep me inspired. To remind myself why I am spending the time on something I have no way of knowing how it will turn out. And, as I am coming to accept the person I have been created to be, I am also learning to honor that part of me that wants to share with the world if it will be of any kind of encouragement even to just one person. To you.

Let’s SHINE friends. Lets let the GLORY of the CREATOR spill out of us. Let’s get holy by being who we were purposed to become.