The Greatness Within You

For as long as I can remember, I wanted to "help people" when I grew up. That is, after I got over my obsession with being an FBI agent in middle school. But I suppose that even FBI agents help people, in a crime-stopping, drug-ring-busting, fugitive-tracking, fingerprint-dusting kind of way. They help the good guys by catching the bad guys. From there it transformed from an Virologist, {don't all girls want to catch felons and study viruses?? What can I say, I was a weird kid...}, to a Brain Surgeon, to a Doctor, to a Psychologist, to finally a Social Worker when I changed my major as a Freshman in college. I hadn't realized until then that the broad "helping of people" could fit into so many different categories.

I truly enjoyed my job as a Social Worker for a few years until I had kids, and then I was blessed to be able to enjoy the new job of "helping people" as a stay-at-home mom. Little people need a lot of help. The hours are long and the need is great, but instead of a paycheck you get smiles, hugs, "I love you's," snuggles, all the "firsts," and the gift of time. TIME that can never be replaced later when the paycheck can. And although I enjoyed it immensely, I feel like a part of me got lost along the way. For years I would tell my husband I felt like a "mom blob." With fewer brain cells and some postpartum depression, I had moved into a stage of life where taking a shower and getting out of my sweats became an afterthought. Why bother with either when the baby's going to spit up again in 5 minutes, right? You can get so busy caring for others and putting yourself aside that you can easily set your "self" on a figurative shelf for years only to come back, dust it off, and realize you don't recognize you anymore. That passionate woman who wanted to change the world, where did she go? We can get so caught up in going through the motions that we forget about the greatness that dwells inside.

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. {Romans 8:9-11}

Did you catch that??? If you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, then the same Spirit that raised Him from the dead lives inside YOU! Whoa. 

You who change poopy diapers, 

nurse crying infants, 

mop up spilled juice, 

scrub applesauce off the walls, 

say "keep your hands to yourself" for the 499th time today, 

never get a full night's sleep,

clean dirty toilets, 

wash 9 loads of laundry, 

pack lunches,

wipe runny noses, 

cook meals from scratch, 

and drive the minivan taxi all over town

have the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead living inside YOU.

Greatness dwells inside of you.

And that might not be your job description, but whatever it is, greatness dwells inside of you, too. Greatness isn't limited by job description, age, location, education, intelligence, talents, or gifts, because it's not about you. It's about Who lives inside you. I think we were all destined for greatness, and all we have to do is step out and say "yes" in obedience. Greatness may not be fame, fortune, or prosperity. Greatness may not even be big things. But God is calling all of us to do something, and even the smallest thing done in His name and for His glory is GREAT.

Let's go do some great things together.


Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.  {Howard Thurman}