Progress, not Perfection

I know I've said it before, more times than I can count, but it always surprises me when I see it happen. You know what I'm talking about? When everything in your life -- sermons, friends, devotionals, that guy on the radio -- points to a truth you needed to hear? 

Sometimes you need to hear a truth a lot before it actually sinks in. At least, I do. 

Last week, one of my #100DaysToBraveSummer devotionals had Psalm 139:14 as the verse of the day. 

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."

Such a popular verse, heavily quoted, and with good reason. But a few months ago, I found that I loved verse 16 even more, though I hardly ever saw it quoted.

"Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

Imagine my surprise when I saw it on a slide during a recent sermon. Okay, Pastor. You have my attention! Actually, the whole sermon caught my attention. Not only had my pastor used my new favorite verse, he continued the whole "say yes to God" theme that Annie has been teaching us from Day 1. How do you become brave? Start saying "yes" to God. Don't wait until the fear goes away. Don't wait until you feel equipped. Say "yes" to what God has next. 

Y'all, I needed to hear that. 

The beginning of June started out okay, but by week two? I was overwhelmed, anxious, a little terrified, and very exhausted. Because I still hadn't carved out a specific time for doing 100 Days to Brave, I missed a lot of days. And even though Annie told us from the beginning to just jump back in when we miss days, that rule-follower-God-won't-listen-if-you-mess-even-just-a-little-bit part of my brain has me feeling like a failure. It starts to tell me that I HAVE to finish the days I missed BEFORE I jump back in. Like I've let Annie down, like I won't be "fully brave" if I skip those days. 

How crazy is that? 

I'm listening to a Matt Chandler series on James while I get ready for work these days, and one of my favorite things he says in the series is that we are working on progress, not perfection. He says it in almost every sermon and I'm so glad he does. It is slowly becoming something my brain spits out at me when I start feeling down about things. Progress, not perfection. Progress, not perfection. 

Repetition is used throughout the Bible to emphasize importance. I don't think it's a stretch to say that hearing truths repeated in different ways, in different areas of your life is used for the same purpose. If you are hearing truths repeated, listen. Tell someone what you are sensing from God and ask them to pray with you or for you. Sometimes saying things out loud helps YOU hear it better, too. 

P.S. Case in point? I had to retype this entire post just to get it to publish. Okay, God. I see you. Progress, not perfection. 

P. P. S. We are halfway through #100DaysToBraveSummer but it is NOT too late to join in! Grab a copy and jump in. July 27th is Day 61. And I'm pretty sure I'm going to turn around and run the devotional again. It is that good, I promise. 

#100DaysToBraveSummer

This post started last Tuesday on one of my other social media outlets and as I continued to type I realized that maybe it was a blog post instead of an update. I'm a little rusty so if it feels a little disjointed, that's because it is. 

What happened last Tuesday that started this blogging idea again? 

Annie Downs. You know, like usual. 

Way back in 2015 (good gracious, has it been that long?) I was working my way through Annie's book Let's all be Brave. I still haven't made my way through it, just in case you were wondering. She later released a devotional called 100 Days to Brave, but since I still haven't finished her other brave book, I didn't think I could pick up her new one. Days turned to weeks and I forgot about all of it. 

I did a search on my blog and somehow only mentioned Annie three times on here? Anyway, I feel like we are friends since we share a love for Scotland (and of the three blog posts, two of them mention Annie in conjunction with Scotland so...) and she turned me on to my resurrected summer music obsession, The Lone Bellow. She speaks my language in so many things and I don't feel so alone in the struggle. Her words challenge me, which is how I got into this whole thing in the first place. 

So when she started #100daystobravesummer read along last week, I thought I would be safe following her first week on Instagram and then moving on with my life. Except, because it is Annie you guys, I read the first two days and decided that this was something my heart needed. I need to be reminded, and more than just on Sunday morning, that I was created to be brave and created for a purpose. I need to be reminded that no one lies to me quite like I do (okay, that one was a Matt Chandler quote, but Annie talks about it too!). And that in order to combat the lies you need to KNOW and BELIEVE the truth about yourself, the truth that Jesus says about you. 

And that is how I started my 100 Days to Brave. 

Sometimes it is hard. Sometimes there are great truths that make me want to camp out on a single day for about a week. Each day feels big and weighty and that alone is intimidating to me. But Annie says we were created to be brave, so I guess I'm going to keep at it. I'm going to try blogging through this summer, mostly because I miss it. I miss creating in the way that feels most natural to me. And hey, diving into a blog that's been on snooze for the last six months is a little brave, right? 

PS If you want to join me, grab a book and dive in! We started on Memorial Day so Tuesday, June 5th puts us on Day 9.