Okay, here goes. I am tired of cheap motivational drivel on Pinterest. Don't get me wrong. I love Pinterest- like, looove Pinterest, and I feel like I follow some savvy, creative people therein. However, you know that you are reacting from a deep place when you read a cutely graphically designed pin that reads, "Wake up and be awesome," and your immediate thought is, "Why don't YOU wake up and be awesome! Leave me alone!" Or when you launch into an imaginary lecture in your head, aimed at the person who wrote, "Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life." Bullllll-oney! So I may be a little literal. And hormonal.
But, people, please. Can I write a public service announcement here for a minute? I have for many years been a "wake up and be awesome" kind of person. And I have to pull back the curtain here. That is the way of death. Hold up, don't click away on me now. I've been reading Jami Nato's blog From the Natos, and I feel bolstered in expressing this truth. When you run out of awesome, you run to the gospel. And I think I'm going to try to sidestep some of the misery in the middle, and just start running to the gospel first thing when I wake up. Because I never have enough awesome, and that whole phrase just seems like a lot of pressure. "Be awesome." Cue my failure. I know that the intention behind this is to motivate and encourage, but look me in the eye and tell me where to find the awesome when my toddler is screaming in the aisles at the store? After Houdini-ing out of the safety belt in the cart and standing in his seat over and over? How about when my clothes have mystery smears on them and they don't fit anyways and my husband is busy and the laundry is the Burmuda Triangle and the bank account is sparse and the fridge is littered with moldy leftovers? Because I like the part where Jesus says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." THANK GOD he doesn't say, "Hey! Don't worry! All you have to do is... BE AWESOME!"
I can't be awesome in the way the world seems to mean it, where you can take a picture of me, my home, and my kids at any moment and stick it on Pinterest like an "after" picture. But I can come to the foot of the cross, ask Him to heal, redeem, transform, forgive, and glorify himself... and then see how the day plays out. Loving others, listening to His voice and nudges, and thanking him in the beauty and the ugly alike. Maybe I can edit that mantra strewn all over Pinterest to "Wake up and SEE AWESOME." Yeah, I like that. I think that fits with the gospel as I understand it, a little better.
And it doesn't make me want to throw up in my mouth a little.
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