I was raised as an only child. Being raised as an only child I didn’t have direct role
models who were in the same age group as myself to look up to nor younger people I knew I had to set a good example for. With all their efforts my parents made it clear that my choices were important and that I had no one else to rely on to make a good life for myself. If I didn’t want to go through their experiences, both in their adolescence and in their adulthood, I would have to do something different. Something better. My parents never told me that I had to be perfect, yet the subtleties of my environment taught me that if I did things good, if I did things right, if I did things that exceeded expectations, there were positive outcomes. Therefore, if I wanted positive outcomes to happen in my life all the time, I would have to do right all the time. Who doesn’t want their life to be an accumulation of good things all the time, right? This same desire to have things go right in my life as a result of what I do inevitably found its way into my relationship with God and my understanding of the Christian walk.

Honestly, this ‘doing it right’ mentality has produced a lot of fear in my life. I have chronic fears of making mistakes and missing the mark ultimately stemming from a deeply rooted FOMO. I have an immense fear of missing out. Not just missing out on a party, or a spouse, or a job opportunity, but missing out on what God has for me and wants to do through me, because of me. What happens on the mornings I press snooze 2-3 times when I already told God last night for the second time in a row that we would have time alone together in the morning? I often wonder am I being self-righteous? Is my heart pure enough? What am I doing with my life when there are people my age–slightly younger or older–who are seemingly doing and being more than me?

I have so many questions and I know that you all do too. No one is ever taught how to perfectly navigate through life especially not as a young Christian. While living in an ever-changing culture it is easy to feel like we are stuck. Danged if we do and danged if we don’t. There are so many hopes, dreams, aspirations, and longings that we have, and we are given the task to figure out where they’re coming from. Is it the world? Is it the devil? Is it yourself? Is it God? I may not know every hope, dream, question, and concern that you have; however, I can assume that if you are reading this, we share a common desire to know and please the only Living God. For as much as I wish there was a monogamous way this would look in our lives, there isn’t. We all have a different way of fulfilling our common goal of becoming Christians. Our struggle is how we become Christians that are confident in the choices we make and the way we live our lives, while affirming our fellow spiritual siblings? Second Corinthians 12:9 says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” This verse has often been seen from the perspective of pain and suffering since it was God’s response to Paul’s three requests to be healed from an ongoing physical problem. However, I have been realizing more that God’s grace is our lifeline. We cannot be who we’re created to be nor do what we’ve been called to do without grace. Grace is God pouring out His favor on us in a way that is unearned. We need grace to even believe in the God who gives it perfectly. There is a song by Jonathan McReynolds entitled ‘Lover of My Soul’. In this song there are lyrics I think capture perfectly the reality of God’s grace working in our lives: “What I lack, You are full of. Where I’m broken, You are whole”.

I wonder how much frustration, anxiety, fear, and stagnation I could have saved myself if I trusted that God’s grace was sufficient for me. When I don’t think to ask for it, or naïvely believe I don’t need it, grace fills the gap between where I am and where God is taking me. My prayer is that we will all receive and appreciate the grace of God in our lives. My desire is that you will allow grace to work in every seemingly impossible area of your life. We can trust that God’s grace for us is enough, simply because without it, life’s challenges and temptations would have destroyed us. His grace brought us to this present moment and gives hope for a future.

About the Author:

Miranda presently mentors and teaches youth at Lakeview Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. She is committed to growing her relationships with God and to encouraging the spiritual development of those she is inspiring. Miranda is also an anointed prayer warrior.