“WE LIVE BY FAITH, NOT BY SIGHT.” 2 CORINTHIANS 5:7
Whether you’re a dancer, a mom, building a business, a student, really wherever you are and whoever you are we have one common denominator and that is that we are all, in faith, working towards something…some goal. Maybe it’s a calling, a purpose, something we feel God’s designed us for, and we are all working towards that dream.
What I notice though, in my own life, is that I start to forget what I’m working towards, why I’m working towards it, and quite simply, burn-out can creep in ever so subtly. I also find that I easily lose sight of the importance of the process of reaching a goal or following a dream. I find myself at times trying to take the easiest route, trying to get away with not working hard on something, kind of hoping it will fall in my lap, but I realize I often fall into the trap of forgetting that the dailiness of a project, a process, a dream…that in the process is where the goal starts to unravel and happen. The success starts to grow and the fruit starts to blossom in the day to day steps of the process.
I don’t know where you are in your life, what dream you’re following, what goal you’re pursuing or what you feel called to, but today I just want to encourage all of us to remember that the daily steps towards that goal is where God invites us to invite Him into that and to keep the perspective that those daily things we are doing really are paying off.
I know how it is to want a dream to happen. Even in my ballet career, I used to get easily bogged down by watching big stars like Misty Copeland or Paloma Herrera because I just thought they have just been awesome all the time. And yes, there is a lot of natural talent there, but you know I would see them all over the ballet magazines and billboards, and I just thought…it was so easy for them, they were just born into it…born to be stars. I realize that they did not just fall into that dream. Yes, they had some great training, but there was a dailiness that went on that nobody saw. They stayed late at the studio, they did conditioning exercises at home, they got to the studio early, and they worked as hard as they could. They didn’t just show up to perform on the big performance days, they showed up everyday to do the hard work…the dailiness, the steps of faith…that nobody sees.
Lately, in my life, that has really been on my heart. So often, we think that our calling is going to be this joyful, glamorous, exciting thing all the time…that it’s going to feel good all the time and we are going to be happy all the time because we are doing what God made us to do. But God has stopped me in my tracks lately and shown me that doing the things we are called to do sometimes is going to involve hard stuff we don’t want to do.
For the dancer, the hard stuff is the daily ballet class, the sweat, the blood, the tears, and the bad days at the studio. For a florist, arranging the flowers is the fun part, but the hard stuff is writing up orders, cleaning the flowers, and delivering them. For a photographer, the fun part is taking photos, but the hard part is editing them, emailing back and forth with clients, or scheduling the photo sessions. For a mom, loving on kiddos and cheering them on is the fun part, but the hard part is the sleepless nights, potty training, and dealing with not having a lot of time for herself. For a writer, the actual writing of a book with a cup of coffee is the fun part, but the hard part is working on book proposals, coming up with more good ideas, or scheduling the details of speaking engagements.
We’ve got to do the hard stuff in order to do the fun stuff.
When the dailiness is hard, that doesn’t mean we are not meant to do what we feel like God has called us to do. I feel today that God wants us to know that it’s in the dailiness…that is where the beauty, growth, and pay-off happens.
If you’re a dancer out there today and you are just feeling like this is just TOO HARD: the day in and day out is just not fun, you love performing, but you’re not sure if you can keep up with the day to day hard work that it takes. I just want you to hear today that it’s in that dailiness that your muscles are growing stronger, your artistry is blooming, and your body is getting stronger. I know you don’t see a whole lot of progress right now or a whole lot of pay off. I just want to encourage you that progress IS happening as you discipline yourself to go day in and day out.
If you’re a mom and you’re just feeling like you can’t wait to know that your kids turn out okay. You have those days where you just get really discouraged because no one sees you in the laundry room or praying for your kids or all the love and the angst that you feel for your kids. I just want you to know that it’s in the process, in the choosing to trust God with the daily things you do, that blooming is happening in your children and in your own heart.
If you’re a young woman in school, starting a business, or working full time, wherever you are…I know that sometimes you just can’t wait to get to the goal or the dream. I just want you to know and hear today that it’s in the dailiness, in the process, the choosing… “Hey God, what’s the work you have for me to do TODAY that is working towards that dream or goal?”…that’s where the goal or dream begins and progresses.
Hear this, ladies, no one may notice what you’re doing every day. And right now, that dream of yours may seem so far off, in fact it may feel so far off that you question if that desire is from God or from yourself. Know today that God plants desires in your heart for a reason and that although you don’t know the timing of when or if that dream will come into fruition, it’s in the process, in the dailiness, that God is going to meet you there and help you meet that goal.
The dailiness, the process isn’t fancy. There are going to be days where you are really excited about your calling, but there are going to be a lot of days where your calling is hard and just plain not fun. You’re sometimes going to feel overwhelmed at the call God’s given you and you will think, “How can I possibly accomplish this? It’s too hard.” I encourage you to think, “What little daily things can I do each day, with God’s help and guidance, to work towards that goal or dream?” It’s a day by day, step by step DANCE of faith. We walk towards God and His plan by FAITH. We can’t see Him, His plans, or His dreams for us. We don’t live by sight. We live by FAITH.
Maybe you just need a little boost today to take a step of faith towards that dream God has put on your heart. Keep taking steps of faith each day trusting that even though we can’t see the fruit or the result, God is going to bless those steps of faith, and He is going to bring something out of that dailiness. Go walk in faith. Do a little thing today towards your dream trusting that the day by day steps of steps of faith are eventually going to bear fruit.
Walk in faith, sister.
Leave a Reply