Monthly Director's Update: September 2014

A month into our Fellows year, we are beginning to find a rhythm and cadence of pace that will carry us through May. Yes, there are still lots of questions and confusion. And yes, there are gripes and complaints about being too busy but the Fellows seem to be allowing the process to work deeply in their hearts.

As we know, there will be bumps and twists along the way but as they are going deeper into their own story, they are able to love themselves and each other through the truth of the Gospel.

We were reading through a quote from “A Return to Love” by Marianne Williamson in which she says:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” 

And we paused to ask, “What if that were true?”

Their response was silence. In the midst of sharing their stories with each other they felt more fear in their own inadequacies, brokenness, and sin. But this idea begged a deeper question in them, how do we uniquely reveal God’s glory through our stories - our lives?

What if we could engage in our own story and discover how it is enmeshed in God’s story?

What if we embraced the light Jesus has placed in us and chose not to fear our brokenness?

What a journey we finds ourselves on. As this class of Fellows begin to view themselves and others through the beauty of Jesus, they begin to see things from a Kingdom perspective. And that is what we are all after.

 As the Fellows embark deeper into their own journey, I can’t help but wondering about your own journey. What would it look like in your own life if you chose not to shrink back? What would it look like if you chose instead to shine – to be who God created you to be?

Oh, that God would grant us the grace to live as His Beloved children.

Shine, my friends.