I want to begin by welcoming you to my little corner of the internet. I figured it only made sense for my first post to explain what either of us are doing here in the first place. By Grace Alone started as an idea the Lord quietly placed in my spirit. So quietly, in fact, that for months I questioned if the idea came from Him at all.
I never described myself as a particularly exceptional writer nor would I have said that I even had a passion for writing. But as the weeks went by the pressing from the Holy Spirit to begin this journey became clearer and clearer. He gave me ideas for names which I ran by my creative team (aka my mom and eldest sister). I researched blog hosting sites for days then spent even longer figuring out how to use the one I chose. I created a logo and social media page. Everything started coming together. The only thing left was to post, yet that seemed to be the hardest step.
I had this beautiful website with a meaningful name and a social media page people actually starting following…and I didn’t have a single word to say. I didn’t have a niche or an intended audience, which (according to all of the blog posts about writing blog posts) I needed before even thinking about posting. Naturally, I started spiraling. Was this instruction really from God? Was I wasting my time? Would anyone even care? I wanted to delete it all and pretend it never existed. Then the Lord spoke.
A Conversation with M
My son had been invited to his best friend’s birthday party. While I was very excited about having this sort of social obligation (I had been praying for community for a while at this point, but we’ll talk about that later), I was a bit nervous about attending a party where I only knew the hosts and everyone else was more than likely related to them. However, upon arriving, that nervousness subsided due to the friendliness of all the other attendees. Through all the pleasant conversations, one in particular will stick with me forever.
One of the party guests approached me and introduced herself- we’ll call her M. We went back and forth in simple conversation, “what do you do for a living?’ “how do you know the hosts?” And I was pleasantly surprised to learn that everyone at the party actually attended the same church and weren’t related at all! Soon we were discussing our faith, and M opened up about her background. You see, M is originally from China and spoke to me about the difficulties of being a follower of Christ in a country where the number of Buddhists, Taoists, and even atheists far outweigh the amount of Christians. Through the entire conversation of her upbringing and her journey to America, one sentence stood out to me the most: “I am so glad I found Jesus.”
It was as if a clue to the mystery of my blog’s purpose fell into place. I didn’t need a specific niche. I didn’t need some well-developed plan to target certain people. This was my audience: anyone glad to know Jesus.
The Stowaway Energy Drink
Fast forward a few weeks following the party, and I still had yet to make a single blog post. I knew who I was speaking to but what was I supposed to say to them? I was spiraling again. But as we know, the Lord can speak anywhere. In this case, it was a Walmart parking lot.
This particular trip to the store, I was working with a pretty tight budget…like ‘skinny jeans in 2012’ tight. While I was waiting in line for a self-checkout station to open up, my son asked for a drink. I’d already calculated what I would be spending and had a few dollars to spare so I grabbed the drink he pointed to. While I was at it, I decided to grab an energy drink for myself since I knew I was off the next day and had plans of being super productive (spoiler alert, my super productive day has been me writing this post. I’m counting it as a win). I scanned our items, paid for them, and proceeded to leave the store.
As I approached the exit, there was not one but two receipt-checkers at post. I had my receipt in hand but they both simply told me to have a nice night and ushered me out of the door without so much as a glance at my cart or receipt. I thought nothing of it and walked to my car. I grabbed the single bag of items to load into my backseat and lo and behold, there was the energy drink at the far end of basket, away from the rest of the items. Upon seeing it, I couldn’t remember if I scanned it or not.
Even before confirming my unintentional theft, there was a rising feeling of conviction to go back inside and pay for it. I reached for the receipt I’d placed in the grocery bag on the walk to my car and silently hoped to see the drink in the list of scanned-and-paid-for-items. What wasn’t as silent as my hope was the rebellious comment I made: “God even if it’s not on the receipt, I’m not going back in there. It’s only $2.”
You can probably imagine the level of annoyance I felt when seeing that I, in fact, had not paid for the drink. Despite my resolve to not go back inside, the conviction was palpable. What was I teaching my son? How was this reflective of the character of Jesus? Where was my integrity? In (peeved) obedience I walked back inside, energy drink in hand and toddler in tow, to the self-checkout station. When the transaction (thankfully) went through, I felt the face of God smile on me. Not simply for my obedience, but because this situation unlocked the final key to the door of my blog’s voice.
This isn’t a space for the put-together and perfect. It’s for those of us who are broken and torn but letting God stich us back up.
So when you read these posts, you’ll see lots of grammatical errors and equally as many errors in life. And my hope is that you can relate and understand as we walk and learn together in this journey of living BY GRACE ALONE.
Comments
6 responses
I am so proud of you for starting this blog and I love it❤️!
Conviction hits us like a TRUCK sometimes, but in those moments I am so thankful for the Lord to put that feeling in my spirit and to do right – by myself, by the people in our lives, but especially by Him!
I really loved this first post and can’t wait to see what’s in store 🥲🙌🏾
I really enjoyed your first writing. I love that you are sharing your heart and love for Jesus!! Looking forward to reading many more. Love you! ❤️
Absolutely love ❤️ it!!
Thank you for being courageous enough to share your world and your faith❤️. Keep writing and we will keep reading and encouraging you for more!! Blessings ❤️❤️