Settling in for the journey

I sit in a quiet corner of my favorite coffeeshop and take some time to reflect on the responsibilities before me. My mind is still swirling from a workshop on Monday that prompted some serious self-examination of my artistic stewardship. And of course the book I happen to be currently reading (Emily P. Freeman's A Million Little Ways) addresses the same ideas:

Perhaps living into the fullness of who you really are is partially about learning to see beyond what is to what could be. Could it be there is more to the story that we don’t know yet? It doesn’t mean that God is trying to teach us a lesson in our difficulty. Perhaps he is simply creating a masterpiece...

Reject the temptation to believe you need to wait for a new set of life circumstances, a different job, or a new setting. Being who you already are no matter the circumstance of your life is what it means to release the art you were made to live. Respond to God where you are as you are...

Could it also be that there are things in you that aren’t in anyone else? That the way God has attached himself to you is a unique way he wants to display his glory to the world? Do you believe in his power to bring life out of death? Could it also be possible, then, that he can bring life out of you? Could there be some corner of the room he wants to influence and you are the person he has called to do that? It may not look like what you expect it to look like or the way other people expect it to look...

Fear says I’m going the wrong way. Doubt says I won’t find it at all. But hope? Hope says, Wait. It’s just a little farther. You are not alone and this is not just your idea...

The waiting and movement come first, and the courage follows close on the heels of art. Show up in the place where you already are fully alive as the image bearer God made you to be. Embrace the mysterious, invisible work of Christ even when it seems like nothing is happening. You are an image bearer and you have a job to do—whether you see the results or whether you don’t.

I don't have beautifully crafted words to explain this, but somehow I sense that this year is to be an important mile-marker in my life. There is much on the horizon. Some things I see in the distance, mirage-like. Other things remain completely out of sight. The barometer is changing, the wind is shifting. The Lord is beckoning me, summoning me to a place of courage and innovation. A calling of loneliness, yes, but one in which God will grant that "calm and heavenly frame" and provide "a light to shine upon the road that leads me to the Lamb."