Hi, Beautiful One,
You've heard it before: "You can’t have a testimony without a test." People use it to justify the pain of whatever circumstance because life happens to us all. It doesn’t ease the pain; it simplifies it. You don’t feel the depth of the saying until you are on the other side of your “test”. Even then, some may ask, was it worth it? Life’s lessons include some self-inflicted wounds.
If you’re not careful, you’ll live to doubt your decision-making because of the painful experiences of the past. But there’s another side to this. After you’ve gone through a wilderness season, you become free. What do you do with that freedom? What do we see people do when they have beaten addiction? How do we operate when we overcome bad habits? Is our contribution to society an example, or can we take it further? In a world full of monetized motives, can it be more than a dollar sign?
We celebrate the ideas of heroes because their symbols mean so much more. Aren’t we symbols as well? Symbols of faith, strength, joy, etc. You can become something more to the people around you when your journey becomes more about the community around you. When your ego bows down to the true realization of self, you become free to ask: how will I use my struggle?
Will you take the win back home? If you are the first to overcome something in your family, whether you like it or not, you stand as something more than imagined. It stands to reason that your reemergence is necessary. You can stand against generational attitudes. You can break the familiar mentality that “this is just how life is,” by showing everyone it doesn’t have to be that way. Some may take it as pride, but a few in that crowd will see. They will see it is possible to overcome the same struggles that burden them. If you keep these victories to yourself, you’re just as responsible for their struggles as anyone else.
Will you share the lessons you have learned? Knowledge is documented experience. You must find a way to help people break through what once kept you down. Yes, everyone’s experience is different; that is the beauty of life. But there is something in you that can free them. There is a skill you mastered, an ability you gained that can help others face their internal battles. You escaped the madness, and now you have methods others can embrace. Community isn’t just built in the turmoil; it’s built by those who set the example on the outside of it. Don’t worry about who won’t listen; they have their bed to lie in. Don’t let those who won’t listen stop you from helping those who will, even if those who don’t are the closest to you.
Can you face those who are living in the same struggles? Helping others means revisiting the same haunting decisions you once made. It means looking upon what kept you anxious, depressed, and living in shame. It's scary, but you must remember that’s who you were, not who you are. It has no claim to you. Your safety from it is why you can face it. You took your power back. Now, you can use that power to help others align with the same freedom you enjoy. You have been granted power for the journey. Will you keep this power for yourself after all you have learned?
The real test of your strength and resolve after a season of isolation is your ability to stand against what kept you down. You'll stare down attitudes, actions, and thoughts that once enslaved your mind without bending. Truth is you are free from what ailed you to go back and free others. Your legacy is one of truth, justice, strength, and freedom. When you were created, it was with a sense of dignity because your journey birthed a warrior. The battle was for you; the war is for everyone else.
You have lived to fight another day; now help others in their fight. It’s the only way to improve the human condition and create a better world.
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