Saturday afternoon, a couple girls and I were at Nordstrom eating lunch, when one of my friends said, “Most days, I check your site and it's the same and I think, 'C'mon Lisamarie, stop taking yourself so seriously, take a stand, and write what you believe.'”
That's what it looks like to have a person speak truth into your life.
Corporate life isn't the end game for me. I'm grateful for my job but it's not what I want to spend the next thirty years doing it. I believe I'm meant to live a story and record it, and that's much scarier than when I was called to move to Denver.
Maya Angelou said, "When I am writing, I am trying to find out who I am, who we are, what we're capable of, how we feel, how we lose and stand up, and go from darkness into darkness. I'm trying for that. But I'm also trying for the language. I'm trying to see how it can really sound. I really love language. I love it for what it does for us, how it allows us to explain the pain and the glory and the nuances and delicacies of our existence."
She also said, "Nothing so terrifies me as writing." One of the greatest American authors was terrifed by the prospect of writing, too. What does God say about the way to beat fear?
God is love.
All who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.
And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect.
Such love knows no fear, because perfect love expells all fear.
We love each other, because He loved us first.
{1 John 4:16-19, NLT}
The goal of life is to become a little more like Jesus everyday, and to live life in a way that makes a case for how He loves. Jesus went to the cross and died a humiliating death to make a case for Love.
Making a case for God and His Love means living life His witness, and doing a lot of things I'd prefer to skip. It means loving when someone has hurt me, staying obedient when it's the hardest thing, writing when it’s the last thing I want to do, or the worst...tossing on a dress and reporting to a pew…during football season. It means making the same decision the days I'm doubtful and overwhelmed, as the days I'm overflowing with faith and trust.
Mad hope in a love that wins.
This is what I believe, this is why I get up every morning, this is what keeps me fighting, keeps me hoping, keeps me feeling, and living, and loving, and flying in the face of everything the world would have us believe.
The heart behind Paper and Glam comes from a group of people in my life who take the time everyday to text, tweet, facebook message, e-mail, or call and say more or less the same thing, "I believe in you. I'm praying for you." Every single day. That's powerful, and it's changed me. There's never a day I don't need to hear “I believe in you. I’m praying for you.” It makes me wake up at five and run a little faster, hope a little harder, and love a little freer. It lightens the load, it grounds me, and keeps my heart in the right place.
We all need to be reminded that we're not crazy and that there's a win in the deck. Why not create a space for that reminder? The reminder that we're all learning to love God and love people, and we're learning to live out a love that wins...and when we don't get it right, we'll be back tomorrow to try it again.
If there’s one heart change, or one person who doesn't turn back, and risks it all sooner than I did, that's a win for God. It's a win for His love. It's a win for His Kingdom.
"If there is a book you want to read,
but it hasn't been written yet, you must write it."
{Toni Morrison}
Love wins,
Lisamarie
