Listening To God’s Voice
It has been 18 days since I launched the book God called me to write so many years ago. I never knew I could experience so many highs, so many lows, yet so many affirmations of God’s purpose in obeying that call.
Along the journey God continued to lift me up, give me the strength and provide the tools, as well as the people, He knew I needed to make this happen. Writing it, however, was wrought with sweet memories as well as excruciating pain. In the last 18 days I have been blessed to see some of the reasons why He wanted me to share this story.
I have been overwhelmed by the reviews, not only on Amazon, but the messages, and the FB posts of people I know, and so many that I don’t. The stories strangers have shared of why this book touched them and the healing of some of their own personal hurts and losses.
Just days ago, a friend of mine I’d known for decades shared with me a story she had never told anyone else. As we sat together while she cried long awaited tears, she blessed me with her deepest pain that she had never been able to reveal to anyone else. She un-burdened herself and relinquished that pain to me because she had read the book, because she felt a kindred spirit.
She knew my story. Or she thought she did. Despite years of friendship and spending a great deal of time together, she didn’t really know the whole story. Reading it, learning the things that God wanted me to share, making myself vulnerable to the work He planned for not only me, but for others, broke that dam, allowing her to finally unburden herself of her own heartbreak and shame she had kept hidden for so long.
And then she did something truly unexpected. With tears running down both our faces, she apologized to me for not being a better friend. She was sorry she had not been more of a comfort to me. I was so taken back that she felt she had failed me. I immediately told her she had nothing to be sorry for. This was exactly why God told me our story had to be told.
The world is so full of sorrow and pain; of crisis and heartbreak. But it is also filled with love and friendship; with others who can relate, even if the stories are not exactly the same. This is why God called us to gather together, to reach out to our neighbors, to our friends, to the strangers who cross our path. We are His hands, His feet and vessels of His love to mourn with the broken-hearted and rejoice in the victories.
We are living in a time of uncertainty many of us have never experienced. My editor and I had chosen our launch date and then everything went crazy in the world. We discussed waiting to publish until things calmed down; until the crisis was over. But God said no, and reminded me of Esther 4:14, that perhaps God had prepared me for just a time as this.
I don’t know what He has planned for me going forward, but I know for sure He will continue to lead me where He wants me to go and to protect me on that journey.
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Good Intentions
