While on our recent vacation to Kure Beach, NC, I got to enjoy and absorb the words of this wonderful book that is due to release on August 18th!
Today is not a Tuesday, but four years ago on this date, it happened to be a Tuesday. I wrote about the significance of the events of that day in a post entitled Divine Appointment. Lately I have been reading a lot about Tuesdays in Emily Freeman’s yet to be released book Simply Tuesday. [only 23 more days to wait-woohoo!] There are many beautiful points made in this book, but perhaps the most provoking for me in this season of life is the theme of celebrating my smallness.
Early in the book, she refers to a question that she posed to her FB followers some time ago. “What kinds of things, situations, people or circumstances make you feel small?” As I think about that day four years ago, I can say without hesitation that lying on an examination table being told that the lump in my right breast was most likely cancer certainly made me feel small. In fact, in all my 33 (almost 34) years I was never more aware of just how small I was. In that moment, I was reminded that control was never…is never…will never…be mine.
While Tuesday’s tend to be the most ordinary day of the week where we take care of the small life details, occasionally it can be a day when the unexpected happens. In Chapter 11, Emily recalls the Tuesday when all of our worlds were forever rocked by the tragedy of the world trade centers. For me, Tuesday, July 26th, 2011 was supposed to be about taking care of the small detail of getting something unusual but not overly concerning checked out. But then the unexpected, the heartbreak happened. And I was forced to embrace the small that both an ordinary and a tragic Tuesday can bring.
As the journey of further testing and treatment continued, it seemed as though I was shrinking. The role I was playing in God’s amazing story of my life was becoming less significant as those around me each started to shine in their groundbreaking performances. Even more, Jesus himself was stealing the show. His monologues to my soul were about what He wanted me to do with my smallness when my journey was through.
And in my reading in books like A Million Little Ways and now Simply Tuesday, He is burdening my heart for those receiving their very own Tuesday morning crisis. He is asking me to build benches in a community of survivors where my art is about being a journeyer rather than a fixer. And He is beckoning me to plant seeds of hope with a care package and leave the outcome up to Him. While the idea of “chasing these flashes” excites me, my smallness also affords me the space to realize that sometimes my eight foot responsibility is to simply appreciate the gift of another day with my Tuesday people.
Thank you, Emily.
Thank you, Jesus.
To learn more about her latest book from Emily herself, visit her new Simply Tuesday landing page.