14 - Solace For The Soul

to me - One of the most meaningful parts of my new journal - “It’s Time to Dream Again” Journal - are the parts where I talk about or reference “transformation”. 

When we get an idea, build it into a plan, and start walking it out, it’s easy to get so fixated on the daily grind that we miss what’s happening beneath the surface - the real treasure.

I know this has been my story.

In dreaming and walking out plans, I do the grind work of completing tasks, most of the time feeling drained I might add, and as the process takes way longer than I had hoped, I begin to wonder about whether or not the effort is worth it. 

I mean after all, as you start to work on something, if you don’t really see it taking shape, it can feel discouraging. The little wins along the way give us encouragement to keep going.

But what about when there are no little wins? What about when progress is elusive? What about when despite your best efforts, your plan falls flat.

Been there, done that, and probably could fill a drawer with the t-shirts.

It doesn’t feel glamorous, and it certainly doesn’t feel productive. But over time I’ve realized - in that repeated experience of my life, something else is happening in those seasons.

Transformation.

And I will tell you what. That is solace for the weary soul.

Because if NOTHING ends up happening out of all the extended effort, at least I know I am a better person for trying than if I hadn’t.

And that is something I can hold onto with tightly gripped fingertips. I may not have the end result I wanted, but I do have the transformation it brought me.

Now, I can certainly focus on the negativity all day long, but what I choose to do, is focus on what the experience is teaching me. 

I may fall. I may fail. I may feel I’ve wasted hours, days, weeks, and years. But by the absolute grace of God, He built character traits like resilience, endurance, and compassion in me that no one and nothing can take away.

It’s embedded in me.

I hope you can see that for yourself too. The grit and resilience and lessons you got out of every exhausting undertaking, produced a deeper inner work that in the end, can’t be taken away. 

Keep fighting forward, friend. Transformation is happening!