victory Archives - Gina Brenna Butz

We Are All Glorious Messes

Post author:Gina B
Post published:October 21, 2015
Post category:expectations grace identity

I just read a post written by a woman who called herself “that mom.” The mom who seems to be failing on all fronts. She says she’s in a rough patch. I get it. We’ve all been there.

I see a lot of posts like this lately, posts that lift the veil on the highly censored, cleaned up versions we often post of ourselves on Facebook, and show that life isn’t always that great.

It’s not as great as the posts of people who ran 10K this morning and toured Europe and whose kids invented something that will now be patented. (for the record, none of those things are true of me).

It’s good, this kind of transparency.

It breaks down walls. It combats shame. But what is discouraging to me is that it seems to create an either/or mentality, and a shaming of those who are doing “well.”

We celebrate those who own their messes (and we should) but we draw lines and separate them from those who claim to be hitting their marks. We call those “other people” fake or boastful.

The fact is, these lines don’t exist.

“That mom” may have had an off day, but I bet if you sit with her, you would wind up concluding that she’s actually doing a great job, even in the midst of her failings.

And the people who are posting their victories aren’t necessarily trying to say they always live at awesome. Granted, they might be, but maybe they don’t feel the freedom to admit that they fall short. That should evoke compassion from us, not shaming. Maybe they’re just saying, “I had a red letter day. Rejoice with me.” And we should.

We Are Both

Can we be the woman who messes up, but is being faithful and pressing on and sometimes has really great moments that she wants to celebrate?

Can we be the woman who is enjoying life and doing well, but let others into the fact that she’s sometimes less than her best?

There is space to affirm both. We can rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. God desires we enter in with both.

We aren’t either/or. We are both.

Success and failure don’t define us. We are both extraordinary and ordinary. There is light and dark in all of us.

We are glorious messes.

If we tend toward focusing on our failures, maybe it’s time we stopped and celebrated what is good. And if we are only showing the shiny parts of life, maybe it’s time to let some people see where we’re struggling.

We can be both.

Either/Or Living in a Both/And World

The Challenge to Rejoice and Weep with Others

Call It Victory

Post author:Gina B
Post published:September 26, 2013
Post category:31 Days of Victory

I am injury prone when it comes to exercise. Last year I got tendinitis in my wrist from push ups. Before that, it was sore heels from running. (I was told I have not been blessed with enough fatty tissue in my heels to run properly. I suggested a transfer from elsewhere in my body, but apparently it doesn’t work that way). Prior to that it was bursitis in my left elbow from P90X. I couldn’t bend it for a week. Try going to the bathroom without bending one of your arms. Seriously, try it.

This time, it was a pulled muscle in my hip from running. God might be trying to tell me something like “Slow down” with all these injuries, but let’s ignore that obvious fact to get to the point of this post, which is what the doctor said to me today.

I was hoping and praying that this visit to an orthopedic surgeon wouldn’t require the weeks of OT warranted by the previous injury. The doctor did give me a cortisone shot, after assuring me that it wouldn’t make me cry and curse like last time (because hips have more cushioning than wrists). He told me I needed to rest it a week, and stretch it. As he got up to leave he asked, “Do you want to do a follow up visit, or should we just call this a victory?”

Call it a victory? That sounded like a great option, so I agreed, “Let’s call it a victory.”

It was a simple phrase, but it’s had me thinking since then. Do I call victories, even in the little things? Managing to get healthy meals on the table in the midst of a busy week? Victory. Writing that note to someone? Victory. Taking initiative to move forward on a project? Victory. Praying over something instead of fretting? Victory.

I think we’re so inclined to see what we’re not doing, what we could be doing, that we forget to see what we are doing, what is happening, and call it victory.

I never expected to walk away from today’s appointment feeling victorious, but I did, just because someone told me it was. I want to remember to recognize the victories and call them, to celebrate where things are going well. They’re all around us, really, we just need to see them.

Where are you experiencing victory today?