A few months ago, it was laid on my heart to reach out to a woman to interview her for my weekly book column for Hope for Women magazine. As it turned out, we had a lot of things in common—besides being authors, we attended the University of Alabama together (Roll Tide!), and we’ve done at least one book event together, although we didn’t realize it.
One thing I learned over the course of our conversation was that she is battling cancer. Instead of letting the diagnosis stop her, she has used it as fuel. Since her diagnosis, she has launched her book writing career and has released several series with published books now in the double digits. The fact that she is activing pursuing her dream while battling cancer in and of itself was amazing to me. The thing that really left me in awe and that had me rethinking my approach to things was on the day the interview questions I had emailed her were due back to me, she emailed me to let me know she was in the hospital because she had developed a brain tumor and she was having trouble seeing.
She met the deadline.
It got me to thinking about how often I make excuses. There are so many days when I just don’t feel like being bothered and rather than doing what I know God has called me to do, I climb back in bed and settle in for a Law and Order: SVU, Little House on the Prairie or Hallmark movie marathon. If someone who is battling cancer, dealing with a brain tumor and having trouble seeing can still be motivated to get stuff done, what’s my excuse?
Today, I pose the same question to you. In light of what my new friend is going through, she is still pursuing her dreams. What’s your excuse for not pursuing yours? Maybe self-doubt gets in the way or you believe the devil’s lies about you. Right now is the time to stop using those excuses as well. No matter who you are, God can use you. How do I know? The Bible has plenty of examples, like the ones I saw recently on Facebook.
Jacob was a cheater
Peter had a temper
David had an affair
Noah got drunk
Jonah ran from God
Paul was a murderer
Miriam was a gossiper
Martha was a worrier
Gideon was insecure
Thomas was a doubter
Sarah was impatient
Elijah was depressed
Moses stuttered
Zacheus was short
Abraham was old
Lazarus was dead
God doesn’t call the qualified. He qualifies the called. Today, stop making excuses and let God use you.
