We need to tell. We need to hear.

"This is what I want you to do: tell your story.  Don't allow the story of God, the sacred, transforming story of what God does in a human heart to become flat and lifeless.   If we choose silence, if we allow the gospel to be told only Sundays, only in sanctuaries, only be approved and educated professionals, that life-changing story will lose its ability to change lives....

If you have been transformed by the grace of God, then you have within you all you need to write your manifesto, your poem, your song, your battle cry, your love letter to a beautiful and broken world."

--Shauna Niequist, Bittersweet

I have a story that's all my own.  I'm learning to be confident in my story, and not back down because I think there's someone else out there who has a story so alike mine that I bore the world to death.  No!  There's as many stories as there are people, and we don't realize how bad we really need to hear them. 

I'm learning to be unapologetic about my story.  This is where I've come, this is who I am.  I used to be so afraid of what others thought of me my senior year of highschool.  And then the phrase "perfect love casts out fear" rocked my life.  It still does. 

I have a long history with comparison, jealousy, and thinking why aren't I where they are in life?  Sometimes I'm so in the depths of these gnawing thoughts that I can hardly leave the black slouchy chair in my room and go DO something, and take God for his Word on something--anything!  But today, as I was walking back from work, I was taking in the blue sky that has been absent in East Lansing for so long.  And suddenly I just exploded with joy and thanksgiving, thanking God for my story, and how he made me to enjoy him, and enjoy life.  I could've almost skipped home. 

But on more days than I care to admit, I slouch waaaaaaay down in the black slouchy chair and just stare at the computer screen, wishing my life were more like the other people who have no problems. 

Nice one, Janie.

So glad God's working on me, and that he's given me a story that's mine to tell about the goodness of God and the beauty of life.  The very gospel message is entrusted to me to share in a very "Janie" way.

What's your story? I'd love to hear it.