Story of my life...

Sitting in a car drinking coffee before the start of school with a fellow classmate my senior year, I burst into laughter after hearing the phrase “You are nothing like they said you were.  I thought you were a witch”.  We had been working on poetry in our English class (which is a secret love of mine) and I had written a figurative poem about the irony of freedom using a man in prison and a bird outside of his window to illustrate my point.  I was surprisingly proud of what I had written considering my over-the-top obsession with perfection and decided to share it with the class when the teacher had asked for volunteers.  The poem ended with the prisoner eating the bird, symbolizing his eliminating the reminder of his captivity and giving up on the hope of his freedom.  From that one line alone a few students came to the conclusion that I must be a witch, of course- why wouldn’t they come to that conclusion?  It couldn’t be that the poem was just that, a poem.  I must be a witch.  Of course.

 

This girl whom I had invited to go have coffee with that morning was new to the school and had terrible anxiety about a debate that we had to have that morning in class.  I offered to share all of the points I would be making that way she would feel better prepared with her answers and less caught off guard.  I never thought that this one simple act of kindness would turn out this way.  With me explaining how I had been misunderstood by a group of boys whose idea of poetry was stringing nonsensical words together and having the end of each line rhyme.  I mean really.  “Cat dog liver mouse, fire hydrant baby house” is not a poem.  But nonetheless my reputation, true or not, had preceded me and shaped her view of who I was.  

 

I have been talking with a few ladies about a very exciting event coming up in March for Head Over Heels- a Girls Conference!  I have been dreaming of doing one for over 6 years now and we are finally doing it- and it will be the first of many!  This conference is so exciting for me and I am even more excited about the possibility of what God will do through it.  The theme, “Story of my life”: a storybook look into every girl’s life was taken from an amazing passage of scripture found in Galatians.  In chapter 1 Paul, formerly known as Saul who had once persecuted and murdered Christians, was writing and said “I am sure you have heard the story of my earlier life…” (Galatians 1:13 MSG).  This phrase jumped out at me.  I don’t know if you have ever been the victim of your own reputation (even if it was a false assumption like mine had been) but it is hard to convince someone otherwise from what they believe to know.  I mean really, Paul is now trying to persuade people into becoming a Christian.  I can’t imagine the confusion that would send someone he was speaking to when it wasn’t that long before that the same way of life would have gotten you beheaded at his very hand.  

Can this man really be trusted?  Has he really changed?  Can I trust a one-time decision to override years of a certain way of thinking and acting?  While this thought may be troublesome for many, it brings me great hope!  As we start a new year it leads me to believe that we are only one decision away from changing the direction of our entire lives.  We can wake up and forget the former way of living.  We can choose to be different and stop acting the way we know is destructive and displeasing to God no matter how long we have acted that way.  We can accept the forgiveness that was so lovingly given to us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross two thousand years ago.  Even if the world doesn’t understand and mistakes us for the old self time and time again, we can start a new year as the person we want to be.  No matter what reputation may be lingering over our heads, it is in the past if we choose for it to be.  So let’s choose to lay down that old self and write a new story for our lives! 

Philippians 3:12-13

^"I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things

or that I have already reached perfection...

No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it,

but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past

and looking forward to what lies ahead."