The Impenetrable Fortress (or not)

I’ve been on quite a journey the last few months and it has been incredibly revealing as to what I really think, believe and feel about myself in many situations. I’ve received some very powerful coaching that has enabled me along with one of the best support networks to work through a heap of stuff, and as I read this quote below it spoke something to me and I want to share it with you.

“How hard something is often depends on your vantage point. For example, consider the shell of an egg. Looking at it from the outside, we know an eggshell is easily broken. But if you’re looking at that same shell from the inside, it seems an impenetrable fortress. It’s impossible for the raw white and tender yolk to penetrate the hardness of the eggshell. But given time and the proper incubation, the white and yolk develop into a new life that breaks through the shell and shakes itself free. And in the end, we can see that the hard work of cracking the shell was good for the new baby chick. The shell actually provided a place for new life to grow, and then enabled the chick to break forth in strength.

Might the same be true for our hard places? Might all this struggle … have the exact same potential for new life and new strength?” Lysa TerKeurst in her book Unglued: Making Wise Choices in the Midst of Raw Emotions.

The egg gave me a different view instead of the onion, we’ve all heard the onion layer stories, but this egg version, the merger egg highlighted some truths. How often do we feel like the stuff from the outside of us can easily break us? I can totally attest to that, what if something happens, or such n such says this or does that? Like an egg we feel like we will be broken and we will die and everything will just fall out like a gooey mess.. We’ve all seen an egg leave a gooey mess at some point right?!!

I love how she shared about the centre of the egg and how that which we have inside can feel like it can never get out. The person we really are. The person we hide. The person we are learning to discover. The gifts and talents and skills we have but we don’t let anyone else know. The dreams and desires. YET the inside of the egg is where the miracle happens, like inside of us, we incubate these things and when the time is right and when we choose to be brave enough with the newness of life we find a way to let those things out. Is it vulnerable ABSOLUTELY YES! I can attest that on my recent journey it has been scary and vulnerable and hard work, just like breaking through the egg shell from the inside. If people try to help the chick inside before it is time the chick can die, so I think there’s a lesson in that too for all of us, we can’t help people until they really are ready. We can’t force it, because in the process we can do more damage to them. Keep them warm with love surrounding them, speak life and encourage and watch as they incubate and find their own way out. You could be the very one who incubates them with love that brings them out to a place of life and freedom that they may never have had before.

I can truly say this has been true of my recent experience, people who have surrounded me with love have enabled me to walk into a coaching journey that has changed the way I see myself, the way I interact and the way I respond and react.

Are you in the egg? Most likely we all are at times! I encourage you to find the people around you who love you, who can be a great support network, a family, a community around you.

Are you outside someone who is incubating inside their egg? I encourage you to love them, to encourage them, to speak life to them and to see them for who they are, without pressure and without force.

The process of incubating is no meager task but it can enable us to be MORE FULLY US!! Isn’t that what we all want?

Meager