As I listened to Katherine Wolf on a panel at the 2019 IF: Gathering, it was like God was using her as a megaphone to me. “How do you balance it all?” They asked her. And in her very own beautiful way, Katherine shared this: “Galatians 6:2 states, ”Bear each other’s burdens.” Galatians 6:9 states, “Do not grow weary in doing good.” And smack dab in the middle of them, Galatians 6:4-5 states, “Take responsibility for doing the creative best with your own life.” That is the key to balancing it all. God knew we needed help in this area and he used Paul’s words to walk us through that process. He says to us, “I am giving you a story and I want you to steward it.”
Katherine simplified balance for me in such clear terms. The only way we can carry each other’s burdens and not grow weary is to own our life…steward our story. What if I took that responsibility seriously? What if I did my creative best with my own life? I stopped and pondered that for quite a while. See when I heard this, I was almost completely certified as a life coach and had just figured out the group of women the Lord was calling me to work with. In the business world they call it your niche. My niche had been clearly pointed out to me by God and He was calling me to single women who love Him. And essentially, I was saying to God, “I want to bear these women’s burdens and I do NOT want to grow weary.” I have done full time ministry before and I grew very weary… kind of burnt out. The Lord wanted to make a few things clear to me.
1. There is a way to bear one another’s burdens without growing weary.
It was like He was saying to me, “You can do this. This is possible. You can bear others burdens; everyone from your friends, to your clients, and even strangers I bring into your path. This is NOT too much for you. I want you to see that here in Galatians. And also, the women I am calling you to serve, they need to know this too.”
2. God walked me through the how of stewarding my story.
God had essentially been taking me on a journey and it was at that moment during the conference that I heard Him say to me, “I have been showing you how to own your life. I have taught you how to stop living at the effect of life around you and I have taught you how to embrace it and truly take responsibility for the current results you have in your life. I have given you tools and the time to uncover what is going on with your beliefs and your current behaviors that are keeping you in certain places in your life.” See, with each week of life coach certification it was like He was peeling back another layer of me that I had become to survive and just try and make it. As each layer was coming off, I was beginning to see what I had been doing. What I had been creating with the way I was looking at my story. I was beginning to have mind shifts and take back parts of me and begin to ask God what He wanted with each part of my story. So, unbeknownst to me, he was walking me through the how of stewarding your story (Galatians 6:4).
3. He wants me to equip YOU with the how
He was doing all of this for me so that I could teach others how. God was saying to me “Equip them.” Be an example. Let your story intersect with theirs and let me use your life as a part of their story. Remember, your life is not yours anyways. I have blessed your story beyond anything you can comprehend or imagine. It was like He was saying to me, “Listen, I have taught you some tools and now I want to use you to get these tools to others. I want you to be my mouthpiece about it. I want you to teach women just like you how to LOVE the season of life they are in and equip them so they can LOVE where I have them. Some of them don’t love it and some of them are surviving, some of them are bearing each other’s burdens to the point of burn out. I want to help them. Some are getting burned, by the church, by their friends, by the institution of marriage. Some of them are angry with me and feel alone. Some of them are hurting. Some of them are lost, or stuck and I see them. I want you to see them and I want you to walk with them and train them as they get what it looks like to steward their story.”
What I have come to learn is that my story is beautiful, it is telling His most amazing story. It isn’t my story, it’s His. My job is to steward His story in my life well. My story is connected to EVERYTHING God is doing in the world. He longs to be glorified in my story and He wants me to enjoy Him while He is writing it. And get this… He wants the same for you!
If this stirs something within you, my next post explains more about life coaching, what it is, and how God led me to it.
With you,
Angie Woods
