When the world leads you off-course…
Cainspirations by Kristi Cain, originally published August 27, 2023
DISCOVERING DESTINY.
Overcoming Darkness.
How are you overcoming the struggle to get back on track? Let’s journey together!
No matter how good our intentions, it’s all too easy to find ourselves on the wrong road.
Even when we try our best to invest in the right career, relationships, and spiritual focus, life can have a way of tripping us up.
Even when I try my hardest to pour myself into my family, students, relationships, and faith community, conflict, frustration, and disappointment can still follow. Even when I am the most confident in deeper Biblical truths, I can never quite anticipate how I will react to the unexpected or how far my mouth will go to run over the kind of witness I am supposed to model.
In a world that wants to pull us every direction but up, it can be hard to know where to turn in the thick of the day to day.
As someone who has struggled with perfectionism most of my life, I also tend to stumble under the weight of looming spiritual expectations.
I am not the kind of Christian that exhibits the best levels of patience in affliction or finds it easy to bless those who persecute me, as Paul exhorts us in Romans 12. I cannot wrap my mind around the faith it would take to request to be crucified upside down as Peter did or sing songs of praise while being fed to lions as so many early martyrs did.
If faithfulness is measured by monumental acts of heroism, I’ve come up woefully short.
And the thought of facing a review of my life in heaven fills me with absolute anxiety when I think of how little I’ve actually accomplished.
But my recent studies have brought me to a very reassuring realization. The same Savior who rejected the Pharisaic “outside of the cup” mentality will never condemn us based on grandiose “spiritual resume” standards.
In fact, the same God who put prophecy in the mouth of a donkey and military victory in the rock of a teenage shepherd can accomplish all the grandiose works he needs to by his own power. All we have to do is show up.
So what does showing up for God look like?
Quite simply, it means loving him and our neighbors well.
In the day to day it means investing more time and energy into adding to the value of the people around us and resisting the temptation to subtract from it, particularly when it comes to our closest loved ones.
It can mean taking the time to listen to our spouses and letting them know we believe in them through every uncertainty. It can mean seeing the best future possible for our children when we speak to them instead of fearing the worst. It can mean filling the outstretched hand of a neighbor in need. Holding the door for an older person. Greeting a stranger with a smile.
Because every time we add to the value of the lives around us, we are also adding eternal treasures to our own chests that await us in heaven.
And if we really want to make sure we don’t miss an opportunity to let our wonder-working God do his best in us, we need to be prayerful enough to heed the Holy Spirit when it tugs us in his direction. Whenever a sudden urge to pray for someone or pick up the phone hits us, when we have that gut feeling about a person who may be in need, when we feel pushed to reach out to someone who may be in a position to open an important door, or when we are urged to show grace in the moments our flesh nature bucks up on us, those are exactly the kind of windows God will open to help us be the instruments of his chain-breaking, mountain-moving glory.
So don’t let the world or anyone else deceive you into thinking that any act of love or kindness you do on your Lord’s behalf is too small. Because it is always through the least of these that God finds the most dazzling ways to display the greatness of his riches.
All we have to do is keep turning to his word, Spirit, and love to be our compass. And when we finally reach our reward of paradise, we might be amazed to see how many lives we ended up enriching.
Because the lives of every soul around us is what heavenly treasure is all about.
YOUR TURN!
Don’t make me do all the talking – I’d love to hear from you!
- What are some day to day ways you can enrich the lives you touch with your unique heart and gifting?
- Are there any verses that help encourage you to see the value of those God has placed in your life?
- Do you want to hear about anything else? Any prayer requests?
Just shoot me an email – don’t be shy! And I promise to reply!
| Want to know your divine calling? Find out with my “Discover Your Destiny” Quiz! |
BEAUTY IN TODAY
Check out these awesome photos from readers like you!
PHOTO CREDITS (top to bottom, left to right): “Beauty for Ashes” by Greg Guzman, Maui (prayers appreciated); “Glacial Reflections” by Cindy Hodge Huskey, Lake Minnewanka, Canada; “Shoshone Splendor” by Kerry Nietz, Shoshone Falls, Idaho; “Fields of Gold” by Cayci Chouinard, Lorenzen Farm, Dayton, Tennessee; and “Blushing Bloom” by Loretta Russell Edgemon, Athens, Tennessee.
Want to share your “Beauty in Today” picture or inspirational musings? Shoot me an email and you just might be featured in my next issue!
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Thanks for visiting with us today! I hope I’ve helped you feel encouraged! – Kristi
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Work looks a lot like play for Kristi Cain and includes inspirational blogging, writing fantastical stories of Christian fiction, teaching English to teens, and being able to say, “I’m a former journalist.” Home is a quickly-emptying nest in the Smoky Mountain foothills with her husband and teenage children. If you ever want a little encouragement in your day, check out her newsletter. Hop over to her website for her latest happenings and join her Facebook group, a fun, faith-based community.
Cain’s life experiences and faith journey have lent her the lens through which she shapes stories of unlocking the light of destiny out of darkness. Through her writing, she hopes to encourage people to understand that the difficult places in life can be the very ingredients that shape the greatest destinies.
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Cainspirations by author Kristi Cain 