The post "The Next Thing" started as a response to me feeling pressure to hang onto a past reality, something that had me feeling stuck. I needed to assert myself. So I could keep growing / going.
Well, it took about 24 hours after writing that for Spirit to convict me (show me, reveal to me) I’m the one who needs to assert that over myself. My tendency is to stay in what's familiar--because I already know how to do that, which is safer. (A journal topic for another time.) But I need to give myself permission to grow--and make a mess as I do it.
But, more of a revelation to me, was the discovery that I also need to allow that in others. People who don't need my permission. Who might step out of the bounds of expectation. Who might make some messes along the way. Who get to change in grow in ways I may not be ready for.
What's funny is I had felt prompted to tack a couple scripture references on to the end of that journal entry--like the one about taking the plank out of your own eye. And Peter being too concerned about what was going to happen with John (Jesus says, "What's that to you? You follow me.").
And now here I am.
Convicted.
Things have a way of getting flipped back on us sometimes.
What I SEE in someone else is probably what exists in me first, as that's the lens I look at them with. You see?
JOURNAL PROMPT: What bugs you in others, what do you judge about people? What do you wish they'd change about themselves? Now try turning that lens back on yourself, take an honest look.