When less of me feels like the best of me.

Do more things that make you feel like you.

Making something out of white space is what we all crave isn’t it? To put a little bit of ourselves into something that was nothing and then watch it come alive.

But what I’ve realized about myself is that too often I compare my picture to someone else’s, and think I’d better stick to a color by number so it all turns out right.

But even then, I am never able to stay inside those lines. I love the obscurity of smudges and drips and colors running into each other, and that’s sort of just how life goes for me.

It’s really hard to stand out, stand up, and be who God’s called me to be when it doesn’t look like what everyone else is doing. But, I’m learning that I can do it, and it feels painfully right, and it feels like me.

And I think the more we feel like we are where God’s called us to be, the less like other people we will look. Maybe as we get closer to where God’s called us to be, we will look a little odd, misunderstood, and full of something people just can’t put their finger on. Maybe if I keep doing the things God’s called me to do then I’ll look less like you, less like them, and hopefully even less like me. Maybe I’ll look just a tiny bit like Him.

I love what Paul says while chained in prison:

“I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
‭‭Philippians‬ ‭1:20-21‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Paul was different. He stepped outside the lines and talked about his God’s love that was so deep, no one could believe it. The people sent him to prison for preaching the gospel, yet he still rejoiced and witnessed in his chains because God was good!

I don’t want to be afraid or ashamed of my difference anymore. I’m praying to have the courage to live a life that is not about me, but about glorifying the only one who can save us all. And maybe that’s weird. Maybe that’s obscure. Maybe that doesn’t fit into the lines we’ve all drawn around ourselves. But friends, we weren’t ever meant to stay in the lines.

So if you’re teetering, with one foot in and one foot out over the blank space, will you take that step with me? Will you give up control and conformity to see what God has for you? Maybe it will be hard. Maybe it will be terrifying. And maybe we will end up in prison (kidding…probably kidding)! But maybe when we get out of our lines, we will see that less of you and less of me looks more like God using the best of you and the best of me to set us all free.