don't hide your healing

“I don’t think I can do it...I don’t have the resources/time/knowledge...I’m inadequate...my past is still with me, crippling me...if only you knew what I’ve done, what I’ve been through...I’m so broken surely He doesn’t want to use me but would rather I sit on the sidelines.”

I've heard each of these phrases again and again over the last few years as I’ve talked with women about leadership in a ministry for which I volunteer. We always pray for God’s leading as they consider this roll, and we trust His yeses and His nos.

But the thing I’ve been surprised by, the thing I can’t quite get over is the common thread in almost every meeting. Do you see it? Maybe you can even relate to these phrases.

Often after sharing their story with me, they pause, as if they’re waiting for me to say, “oh ok, nevermind...well thanks for meeting with me.” But then a moment that’s simultaneously beautiful and heartbreaking. “Wow God has really been working. I think you’d make a great leader.”

I wish you could see their face. It’s probably similar to my 10 year old face when I thought I wasn’t getting much for Christmas. I came into the living room and there it was, the Sound Design stereo of my dreams. I had settled for socks and underwear, but instead was shocked and overwhelmed at this unexpected gift.

These precious women, their faces a beautiful picture of God’s shocking grace and restoration, have lived years, some even decades, thinking their lives just don’t measure up, that God could never use them. They’ve settled, maybe not for “socks and underwear” but for a life of observing instead of participating.

So here’s what I tell them: The world needs to hear the unique way you’ve experienced His forgiveness and grace--your weakness or brokenness doesn’t exclude you; it’s actually the prerequisite to seeing Him work in a mighty way. God wants to work in and through every single person submitted to Him.

You know what God does with the independent strong? He humbles them.

You know what He does with the humble or weak or wounded? He heals them, lifts them, places their feet on solid ground, and then He spotlights that healing to display His faithful power.

You know what does exclude you? Unbelief that God can and will work in you and through you.

Questioning if God can use you isn’t humility, but actually doubting His heart and His power. God heals the broken, but how will the world know He’s the Great Healer if you hide your story?

So Sister, I’m begging you--don’t hide your healing. Don’t sit on the sidelines because of ________. It’s time for the healed and restored to come out of hiding and in humility share our stories, share our lives...hold whatever we are up with open hands while whispering, “here you go Lord, use it however you like.”