Just do it.
I hope Nike doesn’t come after me for saying that here, because Lord knows I don’t have the cash flow to fight it. But isn’t it the truth sometimes? More than just a sneaker slogan, it’s a way of living that I too often sweep under the rug. I like to pretend I’m doing it, when really I’m just making myself look busy.
Similar to those moments I am in the store, I see someone I know, afraid of any confrontation of interaction, I pretend to be looking intently at the items on the shelf. Do I need a plug-in candle warmer? No. But do I want to open myself up for unplanned interaction? Double no. You know you’ve done it too. Admit it.
We have a knack for avoiding the very things that could quite possibly bring us more life than we every thought we needed.
Maybe it’s fear. Maybe it’s shame. Maybe it’s plain laziness. Either way, Satan has a way of distracting me just enough, and while I am sleeping, my inspiration moves out.
I had never thought about this until I came across a blog post at The Well-Watered Woman about “busy idleness”. When I read the words there, it became clear that I had been walking in-step with this for sometime now. Distraction to the point of idleness, although it didn’t present itself that way.
2 Thessalonians 3:11 speaks to this, “For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies.”
And I find myself being a “busybody” most of the time. So here is my first step out.
Writing has been my outlet for processing most of my life. I have journals and diaries from as early as 1st grade. I wrote about playground dramas and boy crazes and the heartache that early adolescence brings. As I moved through life and walked through deep heartache, I blogged and shared my thoughts with friends, letting people in to sacred spaces of my heart in hopes of recovering some of the pieces.
In the last few years, I have written off and on, here and there. I have started and stopped blogs about everything from home decor to pregnancy woes. Even in my attempt to be a “writer” I distracted my heart with topics and niches that weren’t really for me. I welcomed confusion in with a committee of my inner-critic and comparison, convincing myself it was just “not my thing”.
But the thing about Jesus is that as persistent as the enemy is at distracting us, He is even more persistent in calling us back to our true identity in Him. And so He did just that. Thoughts I had long discarded became unshakable. Words spoken to me years ago, resonated with a loud ring in my head. And amidst the chaos that I had allowed to take residence in my heart, a clearing began to form and I remembered the things He had instilled in me long ago.
A love for words. A heart for encouragement. And a passion for sisterhood, held together by the Cross.
So that is the purpose here. To encourage. To create a space for authenticity that breeds sisterhood. To be a soft place to land, when things feel too much. To remind all of us that we are loved, purposed, and created with intention. Welcome.
dearsister 