Don't Waste Your Grace

I almost settled for a dimmed light. 

This morning, my best friend and I found ourselves reflecting on childhood, and not in a nostalgic way, but in a truthful one. We talked about the moments that could have changed everything. The near misses. The experiences that could have gone left, but somehow didn’t. The kind of moments that make you realize you are not here by accident.

In the middle of that conversation, I said something that stayed with me. “Don’t waste your grace”.  And the more I sat with it, the more I realized how easy it is to receive grace and still misuse it.

There is a story in the Bible about Lot that brings this into focus.

When Sodom was being destroyed, Lot was given an opportunity to escape. He was spared by grace and led out of what was meant to destroy him. He was even told where to go next. The mountains represented safety, elevation, and a complete separation from what he had just left behind.

But instead of going there, he chose the plains.

He chose what felt easier. More familiar. Less demanding.

He was saved, but he still settled.

If I’m honest, I’ve been more like lots than I care to acknowledge. Shooting for the clouds when the Lord has shown me the stars. 

I have survived more than I talk about.

I have survived relocating and rebuilding my life in unfamiliar places. I have survived divorce and the unraveling that comes with it. I have survived seasons of depression that tried to convince me to shrink, to disconnect, and to disappear.

I did not come out of those dark places just to live dim. I did not fight to find my way back to myself just to hide my light when it is time to shine.

Grace is not just what pulled you out. It is what calls you forward. And every time you have an opportunity to show up fully, to use your voice, to walk boldly in who you are becoming, and you choose to shrink, you are mishandling something sacred. Every time you play small to make others comfortable, you are wasting grace. Every time you choose fear over growth, or comfort over calling, you are choosing the plains when you have already been invited to the mountain.

At Hello Social Light, the message has always been clear.

You are not here to blend in. You are here to bring light into spaces that need it. Light is not meant to be hidden when it becomes inconvenient or when it requires courage. It is meant to be used, especially in the moments where it would be easier to turn it off. Because turning it off does not protect you. It only delays who you are called to become.

So the question is not whether you have been given grace.

The question is what you are doing with it. 

Are you honoring it by rising into the life that is available to you, or are you settling into spaces that feel safe but require less of you?

You have already been brought out of too much to keep choosing less.

Do not dim your light.

Do not shrink your voice.

And do not waste the grace that carried you here.

Love & Light!

Ebony