Every single day, little by little, we are disqualifying ourselves. Whether it be from 1. our calling 2. our feelings 3. our circumstances 4. or our future. And then we wonder why we aren't where we want to be.
We've become so wrapped up in the hustle and bustle of everyday life that we forget that we actually have a CHOICE! A CHOICE to stop scrolling. A CHOICE to turn it off. A CHOICE to forgo the late night work check-in. A CHOICE to begin living the life that we want for ourselves.
And we buy into this lie that tells us that we will never be enough; That no matter how hard we work that we will never amount too...(insert your celebrity life fantasy). And so we either do two things:
1. Quit. Because you've already bought so far into this lie that you actually believe you will never live a life that "dreamy" or luxurious. And so you live the rest of your life in a "what if" mentality.
2. Become a workaholic. Because you're so determined to see this dream through that you aren't going to stop at anything. Even if that means ruining relationships with family members and friends. And somewhere along the way you forget the dream you had in the first place.
But why? Why do so many of us fall so easily into these two extremes?
Do you think if you didn't have the lives of 1,000+ other people popping into your life everyday you'd care this much? Like seriously...if Instagram or Facebook were of no importance to your life would you care what your life consisted of? Or do you think that if you hadn't ever seen that family making a living traveling around the world that you'd even have a desire to travel?
Sure, social media has amazing benefits and it opens our eyes to opportunities and possibilities that seem to be endless. Let me ask you this...if you weren't comparing yourself to hundreds of thousands of people everyday would you still feel like your voice wasn't good enough. Or that your dream wasn't tangible?
You see, for me what disqualifies me everyday is the thought that there is somebody over here and over there that already has it all figured out, so why would the world need another one of them? How am I any better? Or that market is already so saturated that my work would never stand out, let alone hold up against theirs. Or... this is the one I hear the most, I don't have the time to make my dream my reality so I'm not even going to try.
Quick question...have you ever created something? Something with your own two hands that you could take all the credit for? Whether it be as simple as a portrait you painted in your high school art class, or teaching yourself how to play an instrument or making your first house into a home? And do remember how excited you were to show somebody that one "thing" for the first time? Did you ever find that their reaction didn't meet your expectation? And maybe that giddy excitement and pride you once had felt for that thing that YOU had created was gone in a sheer second because your success depended on their reaction.
Do you ever stop to think that that's maybe how the Father feels when we disqualify His creation (aka ourselves)? When we begin to disqualify ourselves before we've even allowed ourselves the chance to succeed, we are basically telling our creator that His creation isn't all that great. Can you remember that feeling of disappointment you felt when you saw the lack of excitement in the eyes of another towards something you created...now imagine our Heavenly Father. With so much pride and enthusiasm He created you. He purposefully and intentionally created every last in depth description of you and in that He placed specific desires and dreams inside of your heart. Knowing that those things are going to be the things that allow you to live your BEST life and through those "things" you're life will exalt HIM even more.
How many of you realize that we are not on this earth to glorify ourselves? I think we often lose sight of that in today's society. We want so badly to be seen and to be seen again that we begin to want all the glory. But folks, I'm here to tell you that while we are here to exalt and to glorify, we are not here to exalt and glorify ourselves. And as soon as we can begin to wrap our minds around that, we'll begin to understand just how greatly we've offended the Creator's greatest creation...YOU.
When we walk away from the things that we've been born on this earth to do, we are simply dismissing His greatest work. We're saying, "sorry God, you didn't do such a good job on this one so I think you should try again with another." When in reality, He didn't make another that could do what YOU could do. So every time we say "no, not today God," we might be saying "no" to breakthrough in another persons life because while we didn't see it, that person may have needed what YOU (and only you) had but didn't end up receiving it because you already disqualified yourself from even being worthy.
We are allowing ourselves to drown in disqualification because we simply compare ourselves to the best life of someone on social media. But let me tell you something, what you think as an imperfection, the Father see's as a tool of perfection to glorify His Kingdom. What you see as brokenness, He see's as a story of redemption that will exalt His goodness. What you see as "too much work," He see's as a journey of refinement and strength so that you can run the race with dignity that He has set before you.
Listen people, and I'm preaching to myself as well, you need to stop disqualifying yourself! Because when you do, you will see that your "yes" to His nudging is ripple effect in the bigger picture. And for heaven's sake people, stop worrying about what everyone else is going to think...remember at the end of your life, what do you think you're going to be asking yourself? Did I serve myself the best I could?? OR...did I serve HIM the best I could? Are you doing everything you can on the daily to put Him first and to acknowledge that HE is Lord of your life? Or are you still clinging to the lies that so easily disqualify you?
You are perfect JUST the way you are, and your uniqueness was crafted with the perfect plan in mind. Don't forget that.
As always, thank you for joining me today, whether by blog post or podcast I am so thankful to have you here. If you haven't already subscribe to my podcast so that more people can hear how truly special they are!
xoxo, Tessa
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