What stinks is when you write a whole note, take a picture of it, throw it away, and realize you left a question mark off the end.
12Dec, 2011
What stinks is when you write a whole note, take a picture of it, throw it away, and realize you left a question mark off the end.
I would feel Divinely purposeful – like God selected this very encounter with this very person for mutual learning, loving, healing, being, and discovering His purpose for our lives in that very moment. I’d bask in the freedom; the lightness; His Lightness. I’d bask in the relief that I’m okay as I am…and that I have something to offer. I’d dance in happiness that nothing from my past is defining me in that very moment … that I have true freedom of the baggage I try to hide but still carry around – that usually spills out all over the place … sideways, frontward, backward, I trip over it, I hide behind it, I create stories about other people’s perspectives of it to better understand it — thinking maybe I’m just missing a small but findable key to the freedom that I hear is possible. Being Divinely purposeful in my every interaction means I’ve accepted myself as equal to others, guided by God for greater ventures outside this scrolling mind racket I sink into out of familiarity, and it ultimately means truly understanding and ACCEPTING my worth as His child. He has a purpose for me in every situation. Wow. I have a purpose in every situation. WOW. Mind-blowing. Mind-re-arranging. THANK YOU. (deep breath…)
“If my friends are a gift to me, why can’t I be a gift to them”.
I’d like to imagine – that this is the season – where we remember to say thank you to those who are gifts to us – just by being there….. Perhaps if we would say thank you – more often…. we’d all remember to embrace the gifts we have to share.
Thank you for the reminder…….
This requires some serious thought; what would I change if people actually wanted to talk to me. Probably nothing; doesn’t Jesus meet us right where we are?? But people; that is a different story; people aren’t like Jesus; they are critical, judgmental or want something. At least that is my experience. I have a few friends that are genuine; they love & listen without question, blame or shame and they have the ability to pray me thru the tough stuff. I struggle alot with feeling that I am a bother so I know I don’t reach out as often as I should. It is a daily walk to not feel rejection; I have to remind myself that Jesus doesn’t reject me & that keeps me going. I think the Casting Crowns song “If we are the body” pertains to christian friendships as well as reaching nonchristians.
What a great concept. I’ve often wondered what it would be like if I could communicate with others the way I can communicate with my wife. No fear, just me.
Don, I can’t explain to you how much I needed to hear that. Thank you so much for your honesty.
Don … your gifts of Story Telling were delivered at Willow this weekend … thanks for showing up and sharing … thanks for the Christmas Present (Bob) you brought too. I would like to hear more from you, … you are a gift!
I often have the same issue.
… fyi, I truly enjoyed the short convo I had with you last winter!
Good thoughts. I like the hand written notes your doing both in format and content – cool stuff! Keep it up Don.
I wish you had a search button on your blog. A long time ago (well over a year I would say) you wrote something on Job, and I wanted to reread it. I should have printed it out, but I didn’t.
You wouldn’t happen to have the date/page stashed somewhere???
http://donmilleris.com/2010/06/21/one-of-the-marks-of-gods-creation-is-infinite-complexity/
Is it this one?
Seriously Jenn??? THANK YOU!! I truly appreciate you finding that for me…it was exactly what I was looking for.
Merry Christmas!!
Everything.
Don, I’d love to talk to you. Perhaps, rather than being a negative, it’s a form of protection from pride (if not allowed to become craven and binding). To me, there’s something endearing about a man like yourself–successful, well-known, in demand–who doesn’t walk into a room with the expectation that he’s “God’s gift,” but rather a cracked pot, profusely leaking the glory of God. Keep incarnating 2 Cor. 12:10. We love you for it.
Mike
Such a poignant question, one that I’ll be thinking about today. Thanks for sharing!
I love this note because I understand where you’re coming from, DM. I struggled with that same burden until finally I understood the value you reference – that imputed awesomeness we sons of God receive at our adoption. Even deeper, there’s the inherent worth God placed on us before the foundations, a worth that somehow justified the cost of sacrificing himself to redeem us.
When I grasped this truth, my back straightened and my chin rose. My heart grew three sizes and my smiling prayer became, “Papa, just help me to see the line between confidence and cockiness.”
Go get ‘em Don. Don’t let anyone tell you you aren’t one of God’s great gifts.
j oliver
I want to be someone people actually do want to talk to.
I want to immulate those who make me feel like I have had a moment of God bringing His peace, His truth, His encouragement to me. Those people listen well, show genuine interest in my life, and speak with kindness.
I leave feeling loved, challenged, and lifted up.
I want to be a gift…not just assume that I am, and, unfortunately, it is something I have to work very hard at each and every day. Listening and showing genuine interest is a challenge for me. Pathetic, but true.
Great reminder and challenge today. Thanks!
Shelly. Darling one. You are and you do ALL these things. Take it from one to whom you’ve been a BIG gift for the past few months! Just like Don’s saying here, you just need to realize it.
Thanks Lori. You inspire, and I am so grateful for you!
Praying for you this evening.
That would absolutely change my life. I’ve been trying to do that and succeeding in teeny tiny minute ways (like talking to a nonChristian friend about Christianity). But in some big ways I’ve been really failing (like not talking at length to anybody at my church), so I have a LONG journey to success in this ahead of me.
I love this new blogging format you are using, strangely powerful.
Shelly. Darling one. You are and you do ALL these things. Take it from one to whom you’ve been a BIG gift for the past few months! Just like Don’s saying here, you just need to realize it.
Don, this just made me giggle — “what if we were to walk around thinking that we were God’s gift to everyone around us?” I remember a time in middle or high school when that was suggested sarcastically…is that revealing too much of my 70′s-tinged childhood?
When we named our son (Ian David), I wanted him to someday have a hint of how special he is when he learned the meaning of his name (Beloved Gift from God). Just as I felt led to name our daughter Elizabeth Grace (God’s Promise {to us} is Grace), I really do believe that we each are called to gift those whose lives we touch with grace and gentleness.
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I am quite confident that what I have to share is valuable in essence to what God has given me. Others may or may not see that. Maybe it is something they know already or don’t see a need for it now. I believe that’s important to realize that too because when things don’t seem beneficial assumptions can be made about its value.
There is someone that needs what God has given us (even as it can often start with us and continue to grow in us) and there are times it doesn’t have to do with what we have, but about where the need is for what we have and keeping in beat with the Lord there.
People can try and change us and our style. I’m not saying that there may not be a need to grow there, just that it isn’t necessarily about that. Style needs to be first seen in the greater issue of God’s love.
There is something awesome that happens when we are connected to where the need is. As my sister once put it, it was like God was pulling things out of us that He had implanted.
It’s awesome really.
Sharing as I’ve seen where we can try and make things happen and we and others can think there is something wrong with us. Maybe, but it may be more about keeping in beat with God.
I wanted to add that not everyone cares to talk to me and I am fine with that. May not always be pleasant but I’ve lived long enough to know that we all have things we are dealing with and I don’t look to jump to conclusion about my value by how others respond to me, or to make deeper assumptions about them. I don’t care to talk to everyone either, at least not always, and I would hope for the same understanding from them.
I am valuable because God has said so and I believe it. That’s confidence in knowing who we are in Christ, along with what I shared on confidence in what He gives us.
Sometimes we enter a home and others don’t welcome us for reasons that are really off. In that case we are told to wipe the dust off our feet and keep on trucking. Afterall, there are people that need to hear what He has given us and welcome it.
I would say know you are valuable and if God has given you things to share then be confident that it is also valuable, but not everyone does want to hear it. That in itself does not change our value and the value of what has been given us. And try and stay away from assumptions about people’s hearts. I hate that and I believe God does too.
Don, I think about this all the time. Last night I was thinking about how careful I am about “taking hints” from people if they don’t want to talk to or be around me. But then I realized that I was the one making up most of those “hints”. And that my friends actually do want to know me. I guess it still amazes me that anyone would find me likeable.
Thank you so much for sharing this!
Christiana
Hey Don, I wasn’t sure of another way for you to see this, but I directed a short scene from one of your books and i thought you’d like to see it. -Kristopher Pistole
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ3VRcoBb3Y&feature=g-u
Walk like Jesus so that you are are not afraid and so that you give off a calm, content ora and people will naturally walk towards you.
It’s been a while since I’ve read your blog, Mr. Miller. But a friend posted a link to this on Facebook and I love the way it ignites my thoughts and sets my own heart to wonder “what if” …. It definitely helps combat this low self-esteem problem I’ve wrestled with almost all my life. I used to be more inclined to say things like “nobody likes me” and “everybody hates me” but, God has sent me a wonderful counselor and given me a heart and a will to change and become who he wants me to be. Thanks so much, but truly all the glory goes to God.
P.S. Don’t worry so much about the missing question mark. I just proof-read this comment and found a couple silly errors that might have been more embarrassing were they handwritten on a piece of paper. It just shows you’re human and helps those of us who can’t forget how imperfect we are relate to you better.
Don, you are a gift – not just to your friends.
Loving the new format. It’s like a quick jab instead of a knock-out punch, but it’s still leaving me reeling.
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