Your Lens

Recently I watched a video that a friend of mine shared about following your dreams. As I watched, I caught myself saying “wow, that’s good” over and over again. The speaker delivered the message in a very direct and passionate way that just made you get really pumped and encouraged. But as I began processing through the message something happened.

A thought popped into my head that said “if only you could share the way she does...”

This small thought was so subtle that I didn’t even notice the lie. At that moment it seemed true and even a little exciting. I mean, I had just been encouraged to take action from this message so, surely this was an effective way to communicate that I could (or maybe even should?) try to mimic. In my head, I thought "yeah, it would be amazing if I could communicate like her."

At the time, I was beginning the process of starting a blog to equip people to live a life of faith, the very blog you’re reading in fact and once I partnered with that thought I started thinking through how I needed to change everything I had worked on. I began thinking through how I would have to rewrite all the blogs I had already started writing 🤦🏻‍♀️

It sounds crazy now as I write this but these were honest thoughts and I had had them many times before. In fact, they had stopped my progress many times before.

But this time, another voice chimed in right away and it said,

“Only you can say the things I want to be said the way you would say them”. Gut. Check.

This was a different voice…

Do you have a friend in your life who you can immediately identify by just hearing their voice, even if it’s a long way off, you can't see them and you're in the middle of doing something you can immediately recognize that they are near just by the sound of their voice? How is that possible? I think you know the answer. It’s because you spend a lot of time with that person. You probably hear their voice every day and as a result, their voice is so familiar that you can hear it through many other voices and distractions.

You have to spend time with Jesus to know his voice.

That means daily time in His Word, in prayer, sitting silently in His presence. Become familiar with how He speaks to you and you will find that the voice of God stands out in very stark contrast to the voice of the enemy.

When God’s voice spoke it never made me question my value in sharing His message, it never made me question my abilities or my story, it didn’t make me question the revelation I had received or the work I had done. The thought I had had earlier, however, seemed true at first but very quickly became overwhelming and stressful. Then it made me doubt all that I had worked on, work that before this thought, I believed God had inspired.

When God gives you a word or an idea he knows exactly how YOU will filter that idea. He knows that this revelation filtered through your “lens” will be different than the same idea filtered through another believer. We all have our own unique “lens” that has been formed through our experiences and the lessons we’ve learned. He chooses us to share that word because of that special combination in order to reach people maybe others can not.

In John 4 we read about the story of the woman at the well. Jesus shares a very powerful word with this woman and in verse 39 we read:

“Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said, “He told me everything I ever did!” - John‬ ‭4:39‬ ‭NLT‬‬

"Because the woman had said..."

Because this woman shared her story "Many Samaritans...believed in Jesus." Her unique story combined with the word God gave her changed everything. The word she shared is the same message the disciples would share, it’s the same message Paul would later share, it's the same message we share today but this woman's testimony, her place in history, her culture, her experience mixed with this word was unique and it impacted many people that maybe otherwise would not have paid attention.

You can't use someone else's lens to filter the word God gave YOU.

God’s word mixed with your heart, your experiences, your giftings, your resources, your culture will speak in a unique way. It may seem simple to you but that’s because you’ve walked through it and learned it but God gave it to you so that you could turn around and share it the way only you can. To others, what you’ve experienced or learned will be just the encouragement they need to get past a hard season or find the inspiration they need to keep believing in their dream. It could be the a-ha moment they need to make that life-changing decision.

What Word has God trusted you with?

What revelation have you had that needs to be shared?

What truth have you discovered that others need to know?

What lesson have you learned that you could teach?

You have people in your life that need to hear what you have to share the way you would share it.