Have you ever been pushed towards your goal or dream by someone?
I experienced that very thing this Sunday, where, at a lunch with the leaders of our church my mom announced that I sing. I'm pretty certain the look on my face was pure shock and a desire to crawl under the nearest corner and hide.
Before we left lunch the worship leader approached me (and by approached I mean made a beeline for my hubby, mom & I) and fired off a series of questions, getting my contact information and parting with "cool! bring me that questionnaire next Sunday."
And just like that - one of the biggest, most frightening things that I can do is staring me in the face.
You see it's not that I've never sung in front of a church before. I used to sing at our old church with the worship team on a regular basis. Quite honestly, I've been singing my entire life. The problem - the reason that I didn't share my gift with anyone but myself right now is that - hang on to your hats, here!- I, just like everyone else on earth, am insecure.
Do I believe my gift is made for good? Of course.
Do I believe God gifted me with an ability to sing for a very specific, divine purpose? I do!
Do I absolutely enjoy singing and sharing my gift through music and worship? There's honestly few things that bring me more joy!
But through all of that my insecurity still manages to get the best of me. And by insecurity what I really mean is the Devil.
You see the devil intends everything for our destruction - John 10:10 tells us "The thief comes only in order to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come in order that you might have life - life in all its fullness."
The Devil feeds off of our insecurities so that we never share our God given gifts with this world. He plants self-doubt so that we constantly compare ourselves to others and their successes. He plants negative self-image to hold us back from seeing the beauty that God created in all of us!
Above all he plants loneliness-a feeling of being in a world full of billions of people and yet feeling as if you're the only one who has x-trait, or feels like this or that, or looks this way, or is single or married or with children or without children.
And do you want to know the most ironic part about each of those things??
God created you and your life to be a story to someone else. Someone who would go through those same exact emotions, feel those same feelings, experience the same problems or circumstances. The beautiful thing in all of this is that what the devil intends for your destruction The Lord lifts up and uses for your success, your victory, to carve out your unique story so that your life will touch the lives of other people that you don't even know.
So the next time someone pushes you outside of your comfort zone, don't push back.
Instead, thank God for putting that person in a position to feel comfortable enough to challenge you. What doesn't challenge you doesn't change you. Without change you remain in your comfort zone - and nothing great ever happened while you sat cozy and warm in your comfort zone.
xoxo,
Corina
