PRACTICE: Agree or disagree…”One day you will tell your story of how you overcame, what you went through, and it will be someone else’s survival guide.”
As far as I am concerned, a truer statement has never been written. I don’t know by whom, but it is not mine. These words resonate with me as I think of the stories shared with me over the years and how they impacted my will to survive.
What I find fascinating about many of these stories is that the “realness” of the guidance often comes to the forefront only when I am interacting with another person who is struggling, and I reflect on that interaction. As I began to try to help in my own small way, I find myself saying something like…”a friend told me years ago following their struggle with ________, that they discovered strength they didn’t know they had. I found the same to be true when I lost my job/when I moved/when I was betrayed/when I lost my brother.” As I recount the story of my friend as well as my story of overcoming, I have the potential to be the survival guide. Our story becomes that guide only when it is shared. However, verbal communication is not the only way for a story to be shared.
I have an amazing neighbor. She walks several miles as do I every day in the neighborhood. She has no idea that I think she is amazing because I don’t know her name and she doesn’t know mine. Our conversations involve a wave and/or hello. But she is a light of steadfastness and discipline. In a casual conversation with another neighbor who knows both of us, I discovered that the previously mentioned neighbor is being challenged by major health problems. Her perseverance and dedication to maintaining her physical health is a model that we would all do well to imitate. Without a word she has inked a page in my survival guide. She will possibly never know that she has told me her story and is showing me how to overcome. I can’t imagine what she is going through but I can observe how she is going through it…one step at a time…physically and metaphorically. I celebrate the opportunity to add her story to my survival guide.
Phil 1:12
PONDER THIS THOUGHT- Mess to Message- how does it happen?
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