I have been hearing from God lately. It has been coming in a couple different forms of yearning and imagery. I am tired of my own reality being the same. I am ready to step outside of myself and make big changes. I had an epiphany about a week ago. I have not written about it until now because it was such a big thought that I had to mill it over. I was having a moment in the car while listening to praise and worship music. The destination is not important, but the epiphany is. I heard the words, ” Be who I want you to be.”
Now this may not be as big of an epiphany as you may think, but I haven’t yet mentioned how for an entire week I kept waking up with the same exact thought. It may seem strange to have the same thought on repeat every morning like the alarm clock from the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day, but that is exactly what was happening. I believe God was trying to tell me something, but I wasn’t yet ready to listen all the way. So for an entire week I woke up thinking, “Be who you want to be”.
Yet, during this drive a change in the thought took place. And with it came my epiphany. If I wanted to make the changes I so desperately desired in my life. I must first “Be who I want to Be”. Then I could “be who God wants me to be”, which would allow me to “be who I am”, and “be who God has made me to be”.
I feel like this will be my journey over the next year. I know part of this has already begun. Over the course of my life I have been traveling a path. This is a metaphor we can all relate to. It is imagery that has been used in poetry, literature, and life for as long as I know. I will not claim to know for how long , but I have heard or read this metaphor more than I can count. One of my favorite uses of this metaphor is the poem by Robert Frost. You probably now what I am talking about, Two roads diverge in a yellow wood…..I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
I want this for my life, to take the road not often traveled. I see how I am standing here faced with a road which is diverging. I could take the one that seems to be the safest. Or I could take the road that forces me to step out of my comfort zone. I don’t know where either will lead me in the end. But, I know just as you do that if I take the one less traveled by, it will make me different. It will allow me to be who God has made me to be. The best version of myself beyond anything I could ever imagine.
I admire people in the world who can make this decision, because as I am finding out it is not an easy one to make. There are many challenges to overcome.The first being the very human nature to resist change. We are often creatures of habit, and that habit is hard to break away from.
Like I have asked myself, today you too can ask four simple questions. Maybe they will take you on your own road less traveled by.
Who do you want to be?
Who Does God want you to be?
Who are you?
Who has God made you to be?
As I search for the answers to these questions, I hope you too will find the answers. Hopefully along the way you will discover a different answer than you could have imagined. Let’s challenge one another to break away from our normal, our habits, and let whatever has been holding us back from the person God has made us to be burst into the universe. To be the best version of ourselves beyond what we could ever know right now.
Oaks Of Splendor 