Jessica Just Writes

Sometimes our ambition is so much smaller than our calling.  In her book Get Lost, Dannah Gresh says, "I'm often asked by young women how to start a ministry or write a book. Please don't ever ask me that question. I loathe it. My answer is always the same: "Find one heart. Minister. Then let God show you another." " (p. 137) She later goes on to say, "The fact is, starting a ministry is a woefully small ambition. You'd do much better to reach for something bigger: the role of being God's helper." (p. 139)   This really spoke to me. I'm in this interesting place right now where I'm not entirely sure what God wants me to do. I'm not entirely sure what my assignment is. I'm still looking for some clarity and direction on what God wants my next move to be. I have this feeling that it will involve writing books one day or some kind of ministry, but those things aren't for today. They are somewhere in a hazy future I...

I used to have this obsession with chasing shiny things. Shiny achievements, shiny objects, shiny people - things that would ensure I could print the resume of my life on diamond-encrusted paper. Things that I could point to and tell myself and anyone who was listening, "Look how sparkly I am!" What I didn't realize is that those things had a lot less value than I thought. Sometimes I got the shiny things I wanted and realized that up close, they were much more cloudy and flawed than I thought they were. Other times I didn't get the shiny things I wanted because they weren't for me - I was never supposed to have them in the first place. But who needs a resume on diamond-encrusted paper anyway? A person sorting through resumes looking for a new hire might be impressed...or they might glance at it briefly and then throw it on the pile of other resumes they've read - all printed on standard white paper from Kinko's. I once had a dream that I was waiting f...