Staying Brave…and something new!

 

So here’s the thing, choosing brave isn’t just a onetime deal.  It’s an every time deal.

Brave isn’t something to check off your list, a task to be mastered or battle to be won.  Although there are small victories, victories which are no doubt a cause for celebration, life is a growing and changing mechanism.  Situations will arise daily, out of nowhere, at times.  And your brave will be tested.

Relationships seem to provide the most opportunity for us to choose brave.  It’s easy to take a brave stand in one corner of our minds, but when we engage the rest of the world, a world of individuals with their own ideas, their own backstory, their own opinions, well, that is when brave gets harder.  But brave isn’t always engaging, remember?  Sometimes brave is not engaging at all.  It’s tricky like that.

So I want to encourage you, friends; keep seeking Truth.  Keeping fighting to make brave choices, not just easy ones.  Brave isn’t a fast food choice, it’s the choice that represents your truest beliefs.  It’s not the easy way out, but the right one. It is getting back up and making amends after you’ve made the wrong one.   It’s swapping short term ideals for long term gains.  It’s diving into the fray, not because we aren’t afraid, but because we value truth, integrity and whole-hearted living over a cheap imitation, over just getting by.

 

 

Six months now, I’ve been writing here.  I have so much still to learn, but it’s getting easier to navigate the world of blogging.  The technical part isn’t quite as challenging, and I’m starting to find a rhythm.  Even so, the choosing brave hasn’t changed.

A few months ago, I learned of two contributor sites that were looking to add writers.  Each were seeking writers in the Christian living niche, who would provide monthly articles for their site.  Having gained some comfortability here, I decided to apply, throwing it out a as fleece of sorts.  I prayed a simple prayer asking God to make this happen if it was supposed to and sink the ship if it wasn’t. And I left it at that.

With both applications I had to give a little information about myself, provide what I thought to be some of my best writing and if they were interested they would review this blog for more.  Simple enough.  Yet for me, every step of writing feels a bit like that old middle school nightmare – the one where you are standing in front of the classroom in your underwear.  Seriously.  I’m learning to just mentally process it every time, okay, underwear, I can do this.  I still cringe a little at times, but I keep stepping.

So I sent off my applications.  And I promptly received my first denial.  Thanks, but no thanks.  We got lots of great applicants and you weren’t one of them.  That wasn’t quite verbatim, but that is what I read anyway.  I fought the urge to sulk as I remembered my fleece, my sink the ship, and I kept stepping.

 

 

The second application fared a little better.  The site owner contacted me and asked a few questions.  We exchanged question and answer emails over the next couple weeks.  Until, we didn’t.

Weeks passed and I realized I never heard anything more.  No more follow up questions, no denial, just silence.  Upon realizing this I looked up the website, an existing site that was to be re-launching this fall.  And there I found the names of their newest contributors, their headshot and bios being added to the site.  Of course, I wasn’t one of them. Shoot, again.

I recently heard Andy Andrews speak about how he was rejected some 50 times before he published one of his best-selling books. Dr. Seuss was rejected 27 times and even told he didn’t have what it takes to connect with children.  I realize I’m not writing books here, but I’ve prepared my heart for rejection in this game.  It’s part of any game, really.  Rejection is inherent to putting yourself out there, inherent to stepping.

But I felt a bit different about this one.  The back and forth communication looked promising and then just disappeared.  So I chose brave. I sent the site developer who I had been corresponding with, an email.  I simply stated that I hadn’t heard back and was wondering if the selection process was complete.

Minutes later, I received a reply.  Yes, the contributors had all been selected.  But, there had been some kind of mistake.  My application was selected and approved, but somehow they thought I wasn’t interested.  Long story short, if I could catch up quickly they would make room for me as a monthly contributor, before the site officially launched.

One brave e-mail changed everything.

It doesn’t always work that way, friends, but sometimes, it does.

Often times, we have everything to gain and nothing to lose by taking the next brave step.  I could have reasoned that my e-mail was a waste of time, wondered if I would have appeared desperate.  I could have talked myself out of sending that e-mail in a thousand different ways, but because brave is never far from my mind I tapped out the 60 second e-mail and hit send.  One small, brave step that changed things.

 

So on Monday, the Sweet Jesus Ministries website officially launches and, guess what?  I get to be one of their monthly contributors!  I’m thrilled about this new opportunity and thankful for God’s faithfulness as I intentionally and continually seek to grow whatever gifts He has given me.

Pop on over and checkout the site.  I’ve gotten to know some of the ladies behind the screen over the past few weeks and let me tell you, these ladies can write.  They love Jesus wildly and seek to proclaim His truth with their lives.  I don’t know about you, but these are my kind of people.  So check out the site and be sure to stop by all month long; they have a ton of giveaways planned for the month of November as they celebrate the new site and welcome new readers.

And keep choosing brave, friends. I’m choosing it right along with you.