Hello, I’m January
Inspiration and thoughts on God and faith, written by a simple human, navigating life through the messy and sometimes chaotic.
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Just a voice
I stopped. Felt silenced again. And am now using my voice to begin again.
Read, or even listen to hear why “Just A Voice.”
Ever felt like you had no voice? Or you spoke out, spoke your truth and were then silenced? Some of us, more than others. Some maybe not at all.
So why, “Just a Voice?” Well, no one is just anything. Not just a mom. Just a custodian. Whatever you want to add here. And though you may have one voice-you have a unique voice. A voice that needs to be heard. That can reach the heart of one person that needs to hear truth. Honestly. From a real place. Without fluff. Bells. Whistles.
That’s what you will hear. No fluff. No bells. No whistles. No extras. Just a writer. With a pen. Some paper. Her Bible. The Word of God. A microphone.
Just a voice. But a unique one. To whom God has given something to say. A straight-up voice, speaking truth about Him in your mess and your beautiful.
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How not to be forgotten?
Have you ever taken a look through your senior yearbook? Glanced at that superlative section? The one that listed the best looking? Most athletic? Best dressed? Most unforgettable? Then wondered who they were? Because well…you forgot them.
I have been thinking recently about this: What makes someone unforgettable? Or in the same way, what makes them just someone we used to know?
First, what does it mean to be unforgettable? Well by definition-“incapable of being erased, or impressed on the memory” (Merriam-Webster). But are the things impressed on our memory simply things? Rewards? Accomplishments? Beauty? Brains? Maybe. But I think it’s something more. Much more.
The lyrics from the song “How They Remember You” by Rascal Flatts confirms what I have wondered for some time: It ain’t a question of if they will
It’s how they remember youWill I leave an impression unable to be erased, or be someone somebody simply used to know?
And if that memory can’t be erased, what will it leave?
Did you stand or did you fall?
Build a bridge or build a wall
Hide your love or give it all
What did you do? What did you do?
Did you make ’em laugh or make ’em cry?
Did you quit or did you try?
Live your dreams or let ’em die?
What did you choose? What did you choose?Did you welcome, or did you make them feel like an outcast? Did you support and encourage, or did you hinder and tear down? Did you offer praise, or do nothing but complain and criticize? Did you help when others needed it, and were lost; or did you leave them lonely and trying to navigate the losses alone? Did you show love or hate? Make people feel seen and heard; or unwanted and unloveable? Safe or rejected?
Which one were you?
Which one would you choose?
How do you want others to remember you?
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What now, God?
God has taken me on many journeys. He has taken me on one LONG journey as I navigate becoming a licensed mental health provider, advocate for the mental health needs of my clients, all while trying to meet the needs of myself, and those that live in my home. There are few who get it. Even fewer resources in a world booming with mental health concerns, and sometimes the church has been a far lesser resource.
God is calling me to assist in being a voice that changes that. He places His people in “secular” roles to be His voice among the voiceless. To stand silently by, while the world keeps turning as it will, without helping those who need it.
It’s time to not remain voiceless.
He has given me wisdom. He has given me knowledge. He has given me the honor of being a guide. He has given me a mental health issue. He has given me a powerful voice.
It’s time to use it to provide wisdom, knowledge, tools, understanding, and His healing to others.
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If you knew me then…
“Do not call to mind the former things; pay no attention to the things of old.” Isaiah 43:18
Small towns are known for many things. Special places to dine. To gather. Lots of people who know you. Your family. Your past.
People who remember your past. The good. The bad. The ugly.
We all come from places where the past is hard to escape. Where people are holding onto the things we did and can’t wait to bring them up any ole time they deem necessary. But the past doesn’t just lurk in small towns. Or in high school hallways. Or other places we have tried diligently to escape.
It follows us around daily if we let it.
Satan loves our past. And he, like those small town gossips, loves to up bring our past and remind us of it when we already feel down. He will even remind us of it when we have started to turn from it, to tempt us back into old patterns.
Satan wants us to never forget it.
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 2 Corinthians 5:17. NLT
God remembers our past, as well. But unlike Satan he wants us to turn from it. And no matter how sinful or bad it may be, He will never bring it up once we ask for Him to help us clean it up. He will never remind us of what our old way of life may have been, but shows us what our new way of life can be.
It’s for this reason that on the days Satan or a person uses my past to taunt, or I slip back into thoughts of worthlessness, I remind myself of this:
If you knew me in my teens, you knew me in my teens. If you knew me in my 20s, you knew me in my 20s. If you knew me in my 30s, you knew me in my 30s. If you knew me in my past, before God cleaned me up and made me new, you knew me in my past.
God cleaned up a broken, rejected, lost version of each of these, and He never reminds me of these past versions. Only the parts of her that are beautiful and worthy.
If He cleaned up a broken, rejected, lost version of you, no one else should remind you of yours either.
If you haven’t gotten there yet, it’s not too late. You can have a past that God will erase. You can be made new. Just seek Him, repent, and ask Him. Then don’t run to that past again.
I do not own rights to this video, lyrics, or music.
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It is what it is
The phrase in the picture above. It’s one of my favorites. Coined by my bestie and I to remind ourselves to not worry over things we can’t control. It has carried us through tough things. Even trivial nuisances. I even have a bracelet to commemorate our adoption of the phrase.
However, I heard in a sermon on-line in the past not to say the phrase. Not to use it at all. Like…what???
But it’s my favorite. What do you mean, don’t say it?
For a while I felt a bit convicted about it. Caught myself every time it came out of my mouth. Stopped wearing that bracelet.
But then I started therapy. Started working on acceptance. Of myself. Of life in general. It’s ebbs and flows. What God allows, and what He allows to remain a mystery. What He controls. What He gives me the power to control. What He allows to remain, be. What for Him just “is.”
And I realized “it is what it is.” Most things about this life are simply that.
It’s the hard, straight-up, honest truth.
People don’t like me. “It is what it is.” I can stress over it. Mold myself to fit into boxes He never wanted me to fit into. Or I can accept the fact that some people just won’t like me. Just never will, and be OK with it. I like me. And so does He.
People disappoint. “It is what it is.” We are flawed humans. We hurt. It’s a part of our sin-filled nature. A manifestation of the fall. I can sit and wallow in the hurt, or I can forgive and move on. Create better boundaries, and hope I don’t get hurt in the same way again. Learn from it, so that I don’t dare do the same to anyone else.
Change will come. Both good and bad. “It is what it is.” Some change I will like and I will embrace with open arms. Other change I won’t like so much, and I will fight like crazy to avoid. But fighting won’t keep change from coming. Avoiding won’t keep change from coming. It still comes.
Life has ups and downs. It comes with some worries. Some big. Some small. “It is what it is.” It’s the price paid for living until we see the promised land. I can either wallow in worry endlessly, or I can relish in the fact that there isn’t a worry or a trial He has not seen me through. Even if some have been harder than others.
“It is what it is.”
I am not accepting defeat here. I am not laying down my flag and saying that life has no meaning. No purpose. Or that suffering will always be this way (though the Bible does tell us we will have suffering here….).
What I am saying is, for me…I am accepting life as it comes. I can go through it in a constant state of panic, defeat, or sadness. Or I can let life ebb and flow as it will. I can let God handle things as He will anyway.
It is what it is, because He is what He is.
About Me
I am January! Wife, mother, meemaw, pastor, and mental health provider who makes it through the day with my coffee, my journal, and my God; and I am also on some days a hot mess. A simple human, navigating life through the messy and sometimes chaotic.
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