Putting Ourselves Our There....With OUR Story

As I sat in the beautiful stained glass sanctuary looking around and listening to the pipe organ being played, people began to file in and before long, the sanctuary was full.  There was a great mixture of people gathered; from babies to the aging, men and women, clean cut to tatted out...the mixture was pleasing to my eyes.  We gathered to celebrated the life of an amazing man who, as one speaker put, "always put himself out there".

And I've thought about that statement a lot over the last 18 hours...always put yourself out there.  That's where we change people's lives like Larry Stephens did.  The "what you see is what you get" mentality touches more people than the facade we try and put on for the world.  

I don't care how holy you act; how many devotions you do with your family; how many committees or councils you are on at your church or if you're there every time the doors are opened...we all have a story.  But some of us, now that we've survived the ugly, hell-bent lifestyle we lived, don't mind sharing OUR story because just maybe, it will touch someone's life and help them through the hell they are living in.  We can take off our mask and be real.  

Not only was Larry a "put yourself out there" man, he was a fantastic storyteller.  Yesterday, person after person spoke of the many stories he had shared and how his stories always changed their lives.  And you know what...we have the same ability to change others lives if we will share OUR stories.  

If we will take off our "masks", let the walls down, and "put ourselves out there", we can have a huge impact on the kingdom of God.  But you know why we don't?  Because we are afraid of being judged and talked about because we all know there's PLENTY of people to talk about somebody!  

But what if we put that fear aside and "put it all out there"?  How many lives would we touch?  I can tell you...hundreds.  Because once we open up & help someone else through their mess, God will use them to help someone else through the same mess.  Bad things happen...that is just part of life....but if we will "put ourselves out there" and "tell our story", like Larry so often did, we will build the kingdom of God. 

And let me say one more thing before I sign off...don't just go blab your story or worse, SOMEONE ELSE'S story, to the entire world.  Pray for God to place people in your path that will be helped by your story...and if you do pray this, He will place them there.  There are many people out there in the world who are dying inside who think they are the only one who has faced the storm they are in but I assure you, they aren't because you and I have faced the same type storm and we made it through.  Will YOU be the one to let them know, they will make it out too?

Until next time......