Monday’s Mantra
One of my closest friends
called me the other day to tell me she sent me an email containing a blog post
that she thought would speak to me. She’s really sweet like that…and yet, there
are times that I wish she wouldn’t be so sweet, if you know what I mean? She
speaks truth into my life, and there are times when that truth just hurts! Are
you catching what I’m throwing at you? Well, those types of friends are the
best for us, truly, especially if our heart is after God’s heart. Well, hers is
and she knows mine is too.
Thanks for joining me today
for Coffee Hour with Chicklit Power and Monday’s Mantra with Trench Classes
United.
This blog post by Rebeka
Lyons started with her experiences as a speaker/author, and her striving to get
where she thought she should be and how one night in her hotel room after a
speaking engagement, that ultimately led her to her knees, a most painfully
beautiful place to land. As I read of her experience, I could feel every
feeling she was writing, as if I was right there with her, down on my knees!
Because when it’s all said and done, I know that there are just those times
when we have to bow down in order to get up!
As I read her blog, I nearly
stopped breathing as the truth of her words hit a bulls-eye, right smack in the
middle of my heart, and conviction began to ooze out and a holy presence filled
my space. My eyes filled up, blurring my vision but still I could see: “I don’t
live as if You are enough.” Ouch!
I so related to her
confession of counting the “likes” or “hearts” on her stuff she puts out there,
her heart soaring when there were many, and plummeting when there were
few. Why is it we base our self-worth on
how many “likes” or “loves” we get on something we post on social media? Where
does our confidence truly come from? It’s a frustrating conundrum truly,
because my editor from New York actually told me last week, “Your platform’s
too small. You need to get your numbers up because your social media platform
has become just as important as what you write”!
So how does one get away from
the necessity of social media? Well, maybe we ought to consider why we’re
posting what we’re posting. Is it for attention, popularity, to fulfill a need,
such as being liked, loved and accepted? Or is it simply to encourage, lift up,
inspire and motivate?
We have got to remember who
we’re really posting with! See, we
can’t do it for Him because if we do
anything “for” Him, it’s in our own
strength and often for own need or purpose; but to partner “with” Him before we hit that “post” button,
well then we’ll never run out of strength…or words, and the “likes” and “loves”
won’t matter because our Audience of One loves it and isn’t that all that
really counts?
As I finished reading Rebeka’s blog,
she cited something that she heard Ann Voskamp speak, and the echo of it is
still speaking to me as I write this for you:
“Those who keep score in life just want to
know that they count. When you work for an audience of One,
you always know that you count.”
My Coffee Hour friend, maybe it’s time to stop counting the
“likes” and “loves” and trust that if we’re trying to send a message of
encouragement to anyone, He will carry it right to the hearts that need it, and
in the process, as it picks up speed in cyber space, the seed will scatter and
reach many unseen “likes” and “loves.”
Love,
Kim-Evinda
