VAULTS AND MIRRORS. The Truth is "You ARE Enough".
She’s a girl who sets goals. She doesn’t list them or post them on her bathroom mirror, she does however lock them in her safe; that burden of a safe in the back of her mind, her vault of disappointment. Callous guards surround her vault and they are sensitive, touchy, and vigilant. These cruel tormentors answer to shame and guilt. Any whisper of Failure rattles her safe, alerting Expectation. Goals are not the enemy, in fact they used to be friends. Goals were once fun, a positive influence. Goals were never threatening or grim, not until she met Expectation…
Expectation hurt. It was demanding, confining, and beat her up every chance it got. Expectation gave little movement to Goals. She thought hard to remember the first time she met Expectation. Maybe it had always been there, waiting quietly for Failure to come.
Failure had assumed it was invited, it was always invited, at least for a little while. So Failure showed up. It used to have a voice; in the beginning Failure would speak and be heard, handshakes would be exchanged for a challenge well played. But Expectation was relentless; it cursed Failure, would not tolerate the excuses, and punished it for showing up early. So goals remained in the vault, waiting, hopeful, yet slowly morphing into Disappointment.
The battered girl just she stood there, silent and disheartened, staring at herself in the mirror; she had become her own worst enemy. No matter how she looked at it, Disappointment was ugly, cumbersome, and hard to fight. Her successes felt small, her goals achieved seemed insignificant. Disappointment had dulled her senses and buried her joy. Fulfillment, Gratification, and Delight had lost its breath, smothered by Failure and Expectation. The mirror stared back at her in confusion and concern. Her muscles tingled and dripped with stress, they reached for relief, but control tightened its grip and pulled them back. Tears flooded her face, streaking her flushed cheeks with smears of black makeup. She stomped her feet in frustration, disgust and finality. She questioned when it had happened…when she had succumbed to selfishness and lost sight of what was true? When had she become “not enough”? Had she been so tightly wound in punishing herself that she had burdened her perspective and lost sight of her purpose? Had she forgotten God?…
“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11: 28-29, NLT
“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5, NLT
