Find Your Center. Tell Your Story.

In archery, when you take aim at a target, it is not the far off distance you are aiming for, nor the mesmerizing blue and white circles which bring your eye into the focus.  No, you are aiming for center.  The small, red dot, which will bring you points and satisfaction. The goal, the place where you want to finish strong.  That red dot.  The center.

It is like this in life as well.  When you are looking for center, you are not scanning the background, or even looking at the big picture.  When searching, scanning, and preparing to take aim; you are moving inward, turning in toward center.

I’m not the best at giving advice.  I mean, I tell a great story, but my articles are seldom heavy in suggestion.  It’s more of a “watch and avoid” kind of thing with me.  And maybe this post will be like that too.  I’m not sure.  I’ve been trying to birth it for weeks now, so we’ll see how this goes.

Lately, I’ve been surrounded by “circumstances” which continue to remind me that we all need to be finding our center and telling our story.  Why?  Why is my story important?  Why is your story important?  Why is any story important?  Why do we need to have a center?  Why not just live our lives and do the best we can and stick within our circle of influence and not go outside the lines?  What difference does it make anyway?

After this month, I’ve learned it makes a big difference.  Sometimes, a lifesaving difference.  Sometimes, the stories we share with others, or the stories others share with us are life preserving, peace giving, memory making, love giving bits of heaven, right in our real-life world.

Your center is your LifeSource.  If you don’t have a center, you can’t refuel when life gets you down, won’t have the resources to help you go when you’ve been knocked to your knees, and you won’t know your purpose.  Does everyone have a purpose?  You bet they do! Some people have one purpose, some people have many.  Some people know their purpose, some people struggle to find it.  Some people’s purpose shifts as life happens, and they must readjust to a new purpose.  But there is always a purpose.

Part of the purpose of our lives is to share our stories.  As I said before, sometimes these stories can literally be a lifeline to someone who is hurting.  To put this simply, your story is your journey.  It’s the path you’ve always been on, and the steps you have taken to get where you are.  For some people, that looks like a direct path.  Others’ journeys look like a pirate map with twists and turns and lots of secret hideouts until you finally see the X.  Some journeys are filled with struggle and pain and deep, dark beasts that occasionally continue to rear their ugly heads.  Other journeys are calm waters, sunny skies and melodies of birds rising into the air.  No two journeys are the same.

To tell your story, you must go to your center and start.  Look at where you were born.  Think of five things that happened that were not so great.  Then think of five things that happened that cannot be explained.  Five magnificent things.  There are at least five in every journey.  When you’ve listed them, then think how they play out in a timeline.  Then you just start telling the story.  I promise, it will be cathartic.  I promise you will be stronger for having told it.  Even if your story seems like there is nothing in it that is good.  Your story is imperative.

This is the path I’m meant to be on.  This is my journey.  The journey of a troubled childhood.  The journey of a painful adolescence.  The journey of a military wife.  The journey of an infertile woman.  The journey of a woman living with chronic pain.  The journey of a redeemed sinner.  This is my journey.  While my story is articulated through posts here on this blog, youth ministry messages, and fun and games and loud, long, drawn out stories spun around campfires or over coffee; your story may be articulated through drawing, dance, music, sculpture, singing, theater, athletics, adrenaline activities, yoga, fitness, or some other means of expression.  No one has to tell their story the same way.

But you have to tell your story.  Someone needs you to.

I mentioned above that this month has been full of “circumstances” which reminded me that we all need to be telling our story and finding our center.  I have witnessed firsthand the scary, upsetting, sad, unknown, hard, heart breakingly painful parts of life this month.  I have sat quietly in prayer with people, I have listened as they poured out their hurt.  I have shared in their joys too.  The good, the happy, the fun, the miraculous things that have happened in their lives.  I have shared with them that they don’t walk alone.  I am here.  I shared my story with them.  And their story became part of my story.

All of this rambling has gone on to tell you this… it’s a very real world.  It’s a very human, painful, real world.  This world is too big for us to journey all alone.  We simply must put down all the heirs we want to walk around with, and just freaking get real.  And when it’s our turn to go through the valley, we must stop the urge to isolate.  We must turn towards another person, another soul, and let them in.  In order to be free, we must find our center and share our story.

My story is long and drawn out and I know for sure that God has been present in my life since birth.  I can’t deny it.  There are events for which there is no other explanation than the presence of God.  No luck, fate, statistic or reasoning can rationalize the fact that I am still living today.  Not just living, but married, with two babies, enjoying a good life.  Nope.  Only God.  My center.

Find YOUR Center.  Tell YOUR Story.