“I’m standing on your balcony.”
That’s what Ms. Beverly used to say to me. To be honest, I never figured out when she coined that phrase or why, but I knew exactly what she meant. She had my back. She was praying for me. She’d be cheering for me. She was in my corner.
I’m not sure what granted me such a special place in Ms. Beverly’s heart, but she most certainly had a soft spot for me. She knew me as a small child, helping my parents plant our little church, but then she moved away. Almost a decade later, however, she returned amid my shaky teenage years and again became involved in our church. I like to think Jesus knew how much I would need her.
To tell you my relationship with the church suffered when I was a teenager would be an understatement. Undoubtedly, my greatest strength and, in turn, my greatest weakness is my passion. I am stubborn and hardheaded. When I get an idea, there’s no point in telling me I can’t follow through with it; that only fuels my fire.
When I’m running hard after Jesus and I’m in the lane of his will, this attribute of my personality is my greatest strength. In contrast, however, being all in has caused me to fall flat on my face more than a few times. I tend to either succeed big or mess up big. My teenage years were filled with primarily the latter. Ms. Beverly didn’t care. She was for me. Even when I risked it big, even when I messed up, I knew she would have a glimmer in her eye, still proud of my zeal.
