This month’s blog series is “Uniquely Created.” Last month we spoke about Gathering the graces. God graces us with all we need to be the person God uniquely created us to be. If we internalize and believe and trust that we are in fact uniquely created, uniquely gifted, uniquely formed, and uniquely called…we can more easily move into the person God created us to be.
When I started my website just over 18 months ago, I thought a lot about what I wanted to share with anyone who might engage with my writing. I agonized over the lines that I wanted people to see even if they clicked no further than the front page. It took some time and reflection, but I finally settled on two truths I wanted to make sure everyone who happened by my page had a chance to hear at least once in their lives:
- God is not finished with you yet.
- If you are moving closer to the person God created you to be, the details will work themselves out.
Why these two truths? Well, first of all, I do not know about you, but I mess up a great deal in this life. I say things I don’t mean. I get frustrated. I make poor choices. Yet somehow, every single time, I find redemption. Someone gives me a second chance or the day resets and the sun comes up again and I get to repair it. Even when I think I could not possibly get a second chance this time, I do.
I get to try again.
This type of redemption, this ability to try again even if I fail again, it is just not possible if God is done forming me. I can’t possibly be a finished product. Instead of a piece of pottery already fired in the kiln, I’m the wet clay still being formed and tweaked and adjusted every single day. Knowing this truth helps me continue to be hopeful even when inevitably my humanity gets in the way and I mess up once again.
Second of all, I do not know about you, but I, more often than not, get caught up in the details of life. They are what keep me from moving forward and allowing myself to be formed and adapted by God’s grace. When I feel God pushing me toward something new, I can also feel myself pushing back saying: “But God I can’t possibly do that, what about security? What about what others expect of me? What about what I thought I wanted? What if I do this and I fail?” The details often wrap around me like the flames from the kiln’s fire and threaten to harden me into a finished product.
Therefore, recognizing and speaking this truth – that the details will work themselves out – allows me to stay malleable to God’s will and direction. The truth that God has a specific plan for me and my formation allows me to live into the changing directions of my life with a little more trust and a lot more faith.
I believe these truths once recognized and internalized help us live into the people God created us to be. They allow us to be formed and adjusted and remade over and over again. They open our hearts to mercy. They allow us to leave space for redemption. They give us the vocabulary to let others know that God is not finished with them yet either.
There is one more truth that I did not place on the front page of my website that maybe I should add. It’s a truth I’ve come to know quite recently and I feel it is important to note here for you as well: The only one that can stand in the way of God forming me… is me.
Every time I think I can’t, every time I think someone else can do better, every time I think God is done with me – I get in the way of the magnificent plan God has for my life. Everytime I lean in, everytime I allow myself to be malleable to a new direction, everytime I allow myself to feel redeemable – God forms me anew.
I share these truths with you today because I want you to know I see you. I see you when you struggle to believe that God has a way forward for you. I see when you struggle to believe that you are capable of great change, tremendous growth, and living a quite magnificent life. I see when the details threaten to harden you and keep you from being malleable to God’s design for you.
I see that in you because I see that in me.
So let us work together to remind ourselves of these truths daily:
- God is not finished with you yet;
- If you are moving closer to the person God created you to be, the details will work themselves out;
- The only person that can get in the way of God forming you… is you.
God is ready to begin. Are you ready to let God start?
Go Deeper:
- You can read more of Gretchen’s great wisdom here:
Photo by KT on Unsplash.
Gretchen Crowder
Gretchen Crowder has served as a campus minister and Ignatian educator for the Jesuit Dallas community for the last fifteen years and counting. She is also a freelance writer and speaker. She has a B.S. in mathematics and a M.Ed. from the University of Notre Dame as well as an M.T.S. from the University of Dallas. She resides in Dallas, TX with her husband, three boys, and an ever-growing number of pets.
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