Welcome to another chapter of Grateful Heart Monday where I begin each week writing about a single piece of gratitude from my life, which for today is for one of my readers, Jean-Marie. But before I tell you why I’m grateful for her, I think it’s important to say I’m also extremely grateful for all the rest of my readers as well, especially to those who found spiritual connection and healing from any of my words and took the time to let me know.
You see, receiving positive comments from readers often helps me to keep writing, as writing day in and day out for over five years now has the tendency to frequently feel quite arduous. Sometimes it really takes a lot of energy to even sit down at my computer to write something, particularly when my levels of pain and mental anguish are utterly high. So, receiving positive feedback is something I don’t take for granted and something I tend to use to motivate me on those difficult health days to keep writing.
Nevertheless, given that I also made a commitment to keep writing as a way of giving back a gift I feel God gave me and as a way to help myself heal, I continue to write on a very personal level, which from time to time has deeply touched a reader, like it did most recently with Jean-Marie.
When I received her Facebook message last week in a response to one of my blog postings, one that dealt specifically with a fear about God abandoning me, I can honestly say I couldn’t place her name or how I actually knew her, other than the fact that I knew we were connected as friends on social media.
As I read her response and tried to remember how I actually knew her, I could see how she and I were much alike. Jean-Marie is one of those people who isn’t afraid to share openly about the struggles she’s facing in life and as she did so in her response, she let me know how much she related to my ongoing struggles with chronic pain, emptiness, and feeling a lack of connection with God. But, it was in something she said after that, which made me grateful enough to write about it. And while I was plenty grateful that she thanked me for my article and told me to not give up, it’s in these following words she shared with me publicly on Facebook that moved me greatly and filled me with the most amount of gratitude…
“Andrew, you have been a vessel to me. You probably don’t remember me, but I met you 8 years ago at a friend’s house which you had come to perform a guided meditation. Your God given gift touched me that day and I will never forget you opening my eyes to a better way of life. That night I put your number in my phone with full intentions of setting up another meditation. Time went on, much life happened, good and bad, 7 years went by and I became sick, my husband left for another women, house in foreclosure, just to name a few life situations. Then in one of my darkest moments, somehow my phone connected your phone number to my FB and was receiving your blogs which I had never seen before. I’m technology disabled, lol, so I’m not sure how it happened and as I scrolled through the mundane of FB posts and memes I stopped and read a blog from you. Your blog was about self-discovery and how to find yourself in the midst of turmoil. I am communicating this with you because you are completely unaware of how you have helped me get through some of my darkest times. Hence, the vessel. God worked through you to reach me and help me. My point, we don’t know his workings and do not always see how he uses ours gifts to touch other people. Your blogs, which I believe are a gift given to you from him, helped me through a time where I did not want to live anymore. And again, you had no idea!!! That my friend is God.”
So, in light of that, in the midst of me questioning whether God is still with me or not, I received these very beautiful words from a woman I couldn’t remember for the life of me, but a woman nonetheless who very much helped to remind me that I do have a purpose, even in this weakened state I often find myself living in.
I’m truly filled with an immense amount of gratitude today for Jean-Marie because of this, as she gave me a much-needed reminder that God continues to work through me, even when I think I’m totally lost and useless. It really is a beautiful thing indeed to see how a gift of writing that God gave me is also helping to bless, heal, and guide others around the world, like it has for Jean-Marie…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
