Monday Mercies
It’s been put on my heart yesterday that I don’t do enough to spread the name of Jesus and to show his heart through my actions. I claim to love him, but in my daily life of rolling through the punches, I often forget my purpose for being here, on this earth. As a Christian, the one thing that is taught to us is to go tell everyone about God and how he died for our sins to save us. How often do I tell anyone about that? Rare. Sadly. So I decided to come to the one platform I have – my blog and Instagram – to share what I learned from the Sunday’s service the day prior in hopes that maybe it will reach someone who doesn’t like church, or their relationship with Jesus has been changing over the last couple years and you just can’t seem to find a home. I hope this can be your home, every Monday, until you find yourself a church home that you feel a part of.
Our church’s service from yesterday really hit me hard. It was about your identity and how you, others around you, your friends and family, put “labels” on you and often, while trying to help, end up trapping you in lies that you tell yourself and that you start believing in. This resonated with me because I do this to myself too often. “I’m a wedding photographer” has made me make some bad mental health decisions in the past because I thought that in order to be a successful wedding photographer, I had to take on 40-50 weddings a year and work almost every single weekend. I thought it meant I had to work 14 hour days Sunday-Friday to make sure that my couple would receive their gallery in 2 weeks or less or else they wouldn’t like me and wouldn’t tell their friends about us for future weddings. I thought A LOT of things that just simply weren’t true.
“I’m not a runner” trapped me into “not an athlete” and there for “couldn’t work out”. What?! Anyone can work out. Anyone can run! I mean, I run pretty slowly, so maybe most would consider my run more of a slow job, but either way. Last year, I decided to take my “I’m not a runner” identity, and flip it on it’s head. I ran a half marathon as well as mud race. I did not place in the top tier, and I didn’t care. Because you don’t have to be the BEST runner in all of the land in order to consider yourself a runner.
Anyway, going down a bit of a rabbit hole. Some other “labels” I’ve given myself have not been the most kind. Crazy. Ugly. Fat. Lazy. Judge mental. Overwhelmed. Yes. All of these are labels that I decided I was. And therefor, once you state that truth, your thinking follows in that same negative mindset. From your thoughts, your actions come and then you create bad habits based on that one little thought that you made up in your head that wasn’t even true! If I tell myself I’m crazy, my thoughts will be crazy, and my actions will be crazy, and then I’ll have crazy habits, and then I basically just made myself crazy even though it’s totally not the goal. However, if I tell myself, “I am a child of God,” or, “I am strong, a great friend, beautiful, healthy, a loving spouse, confident, hard working, redeemed…” – my thoughts will be much different than when I labeled myself crazy. My thoughts will be loving, my actions will be loving, I will create loving habits and others will also perceive me as a loving person, because I am. Because I said so and acted upon it.
Now, just because you feel like you are broken, doesn’t mean you are. What you FEEL isn’t always REALITY. I had to learn this the hard way (and still continue to learn this everyday) due to struggling with anxiety and depression issues. That does not mean that I am broken. GOD did not cause my anxiety and I am not my anxiety. God did not cause it, but he is going to use it. God did not cause your issues, but he is going to use them as well. You don’t have to live trapped, you just have to surrender to God and listen to his purpose for you. You need to find your identity in Jesus, so he can use you in ways that you would never have imagined in your wildest dreams!
Anyway, I am no pastor, and I am no saint. But I do enjoy getting closer to Jesus. I would like to continue this every single Monday, and give you recaps of my Sunday sermons that I hear at church. Did you like this? Did you resonate with anything? Did I just ramble and not make sense at all? Let me know in the comments below so I can try to be better at spreading God’s name in a healthy and loving way. 🙂
