There are some words that seem so innocuous (ok I had to try three times to spell that before I got it right) that we don’t notice how they cause train wrecks in our souls.
For me, I realized that the word ‘obvious’ does that. Why write that down and share it? It’s so obvious, no one else will be encouraged or learn anything if you say that. Obviously, this is something everyone else has already thought and doesn’t need to be reminded of. Everyone who reads this is going to think you’re such a simpleton for stating the obvious here.
My words, and your words, are NOT obvious to anyone but us. They have a unique purpose and your unique voice behind them, even if they have been said before.
I recently heard author, entrepreneur, and hope*writers co-founder Brian Dixon say to our group that “What’s obvious to you is magic to someone else.” It stopped me dead, because most of my struggle to write down the words is with the barricade of “well, a million other people have already said it, better, and with a wider reach of readers, what’s the point?”
The old statistic that to hear something positive takes ten times as long to sink in and stay with us as something negative that’s said to or about us applies to writing as well. So how can I not add my voice to the countless others who have discovered the same experiences of God’s truth? It doesn’t diminish me, and it only serves to confirm their voices as well.
The #metoo movement has been powerful, in one way because it created solidarity, community, honesty, and gave hope and safety for so many to push past shame into exposing dark deeds to the light, helping many find freedom and start the conversation of how to truly find justice and healing in the wake of violent acts. What if those who stood up had given in to thoughts like, “well, they’ll just think I’m jumping on the bandwagon,” or, “my voice will just get lost in the crowd.”
That is just one powerful and meaningful example of many people saying what appears to be the same message on the surface, and it trickles down to writing in general. If my experience, epiphanies, realizations, lessons learned are shared, even if it seems unoriginal (the cardinal sin to an Enneagram four) or obvious, those who don’t see the world through the same lens as I do will get a glimpse. Those who do process like I do, will be encouraged they are not alone.
God created my heart unique, not in the sense that I’m not understandable, but in the sense that my experiences and trauma and joy and persona all have combined to create a heart that has facets that will reflect God in ways that no one else can, to people God has placed in my path that will see what is reflected at just the right angle to pierce through to their souls and light it on fire.
The killer of this journey is “the obvious” because it creates a filter nothing can get past. The thoughts that come naturally to me, don’t come as easily as I believe. They are there because of years of walking with God down a narrow trail that is mine alone. Times of anxiety as a child. The space of watching my Mom suffer from and go Home to Heaven because of cancer. Upheaval a few times in my romantic life (same guy, and it works out in the end). Difficult people that broke my trust or misunderstood me. Friendships that have come and gone but spoken volumes into my soul of what God had in mind for relationships. Living and traveling in far flung parts of the globe. Years of anxiety, depression, post-partum, loneliness, most of which I dealt with out of a space of shame for so long because I didn’t realize what was going on in my head and blamed myself for it. Trusting God through a whirlwind, crazy move across the country on a whisper from the Holy Spirit. All these and more together shape a story that others will see pieces of themselves in, and find hope in someone who’s a tad further along the road than they are.
God has work for me to do. Me belittling the thoughts He’s placed in me, the notions He’s trying to develop, undermines His voice and makes me a slave to fear. Fear of running out of energy. Fear of how people will receive my words. Fear of making too many new friends. Fear of being misunderstood. Fear of not being seen at all.
“Perfect love casts out fear,” so will I stop, let myself be held in the shadow of the wings of the Almighty God, and, out of the fullness of my heart, speak? Today I have. Tomorrow I will have to chose again with intention. Today, you can choose, too.
