Her words were timely. My week had been difficult {read as super crappy and therefore emotional}, and the envelope she slipped in my bag remained buried for a few days. When I reached in, and subsequently pulled out the envelope, I was eager to open it. I had been dancing on the edge of quitting for two days, and I secretly hoped this wasn’t a letter of correction. Do you ever get to that point?

This particular week everything felt so.darn.hard. My personal relationships were strained, my work relationships felt insecure, and I began spiraling into the great pit of not enough. Scarcity is a liar, but a good one. So, I was ready to wave my white flag and hide under a rock…forever.

When I get to this point, I question everything. I negotiate my giftedness and devalue the work God has called me to in this season–at this place in my life. I see my lack, and only my lack. My perspective is overcome with the “have not” mentality.

I often bumble through my day with the same {ridiculous} question nagging at me. “Does any of this really matter? Am I doing anything that has lasting meaning?” This is not an attempt to fish for the applause of man; I’m honestly asking God to answer the question in my spirit. His answer can and does change my unwarranted insecurities.

Not surprising, His answer {often} comes through the voice of a friend. There, where words from a friend intersect my faulty thinking, unhealthy, old filters are challenged. As you might then imagine, her words struck a desperate place within me. The one where faulty thinking has emerged as absolute truth–where my foundation is but sand. The place where I measure this life through the lens of limited understanding and partial knowledge. The one where I want to rush God along in His plans for my life—where I arrogantly assume He needs my suggestions for making everything “better” comfortable for me.

This friend thanked me for using my gifts and encouraged me to keep teaching/encouraging. She didn’t have to share that letter with me, but because she did I found myself seeing the wonder of God at work in the midst of an emotionally and mentally difficult week.

Only where I recognize the wrong, faulty thinking can new hope be born. There I surrender my feeble attempts to control my world, and walk in new freedom…new ways of thinking. Kind, honest words of encouragement are within each of us. They are the catalyst by which new thinking emerges…even when we don’t, yet, have eyes to see it ourselves.

I wonder who in my world needs an extra dose of encouragement today. I wonder which friend is wrestling with faulty thinking, or building on shifting sand.  I believe God wants me to use my words to be honest and vulnerable. I believe I need to speak life into those He puts in my path.

Today I’ll give up on quitting everything…except for my faulty ways of thinking. Those can take a hike!

Hope has the power to destroy faulty thinking. It is, after all, an anchor for the soul.