I’ve spent a lot of my high school years trying to figure out where I belong. I’ve played sports, I’ve quit sports. I’ve joined clubs, I’ve quit clubs. I spent four years putting myself into new things and half the stuff I tried didn’t seem to fix the void I was left feeling. I hated being rejected and feeling like I didn’t belong. I searched in a lot of places to find myself. Over these years, I’ve learned something; the effort it takes to make everyone happy takes away from me actually being happy.

People are always going to have something to say. There will always be someone with an opinion of what you should look like, act like, or hang around. It’s understandable to follow what they say. I am a people pleaser and doing things that disappoint people gives me anxiety. However, if I lived my life through the perspective of others, I would be missing something valuable. If I lived my life through my feelings & emotions, I’d be mislead every time.

I’ve found myself doing this a lot lately and it’s draining! It takes a lot of work to be what everyone wants you to be and live how they want you to live. But what if I’ve found something better? I live for an audience of One and it’s the most freeing thing I could ever do. What about you? Are you living in fear of being rejected or in the state of having to please everybody? Jesus lived 33 years, that’s almost 3 decades of being hidden and overlooked.

Jesus had the truth everybody wanted, but many around Him were too afraid of what people would think of a Jesus follower, so they made fun of Jesus. Their insecurities led them to harass the Son of God. The same is true about us. When we chose to follow Jesus, wholeheartedly, we are committing to be overlooked and underestimated. Is following Jesus hard in the world we live in? Absolutely. But when we press in, and dig deep into the Word of God, those things that the enemy tries to throw at us, and the words that people say about and to us only stay on the surface. There is freedom in following God, because it’s not easy. Nothing worth it is ever easy, right?

Morgan Harper Nichols said it best- How beautifully and miraculously He is changing your narrative. Day by day, he weaves the pieces together that seemed too broken just a few months ago. In the morning, mercy shines: brighter than the dawn itself. In the evening, His presence is more evident than it’s ever been before. After all this time, you know you are seen. You see all around, you see He is working. Through every chapter, through all the tears and the laughter, how beautifully and miraculously He is changing your narrative. Day by day, he weaves the pieces together.

Be bold my friend, there is great blessing and breakthrough ahead.