Do you ever read quotes like “what will you do with your one wild and precious life?”* and feel stressed out because you haven’t yet accomplished something great? Or maybe you feel an immense pressure to find the one amazing thing you can do for the world that no one else can do?
If you’re feeling small, or inadequate, or boring, every time you scroll through Instagram to see snapshots of what grandiose things everyone else is doing, take comfort in these wise words from Emily P. Freeman:
“Soon after my first book was released in the fall of 2011, I had someone ask me if I thought that was the book I was born to write. Part of me wanted to declare with great certainty, ‘Yes! This is what I was made to do! This book is the culmination of my purpose on earth.’
But I couldn’t say that.
I believe that book was the book I was born to write for that particular season in my life. Several years before that book released, I brought twins into the world, revealing God’s glory by being a mother (I still do that, by the way). Four years before that, I learned sign language and revealed God’s glory by being an interpreter (I no longer do that at all). Just this morning I revealed the glory of God in my kitchen, making cookie dough….
I don’t believe there is one great thing I was made to do in this world. I believe there is one great God I was made to glorify. And there will be many ways, even a million little ways, I will declare his glory with my life.”
What is one of your million little ways to glorify God?
*Ironically, Mary Oliver’s poem is about just being in nature, rather than doing anything in particular! Enjoy reading it for yourself.
