For those of you who follow me on Facebook, you may have seen my tribute to one of my mentors from afar, Bill Hybels who recently retired from his senior pastor role at my church Willowcreek Community Church.

The news came unexpectedly to us church members, for we were expecting him to retire in October. Due to recent allegations recently printed in the Chicago Tribune, Bill decided to sacrificially step down early to help the new leaders get acquainted with their roles and rid them of any uneccessary energy towards the negative press towards him.

I was one emotional girl. I was already prepping myself to get prepared for the October retirement and I didn’t see this coming.  

I went to bed sad that night, however in the morning something shifted inside of me.  

I felt a whisper from God tell me “One great leader is stepping down, it is time for new great leaders to step up”. I had a fire inside of me burning with a passion to lead. Little did I know what was going to happen that day.

So I wrote a tribute to Bill on Facebook the night prior and it got the attention of CBS channel 2 news. I was contacted in the early afternoon by CBS staff to see if I would do an interview.  My first response was I shouldn’t do it because the press may change my words around and it could make matters even worse.   But then I remembered the whisper God said to me just a few hours earlier, “…..it is time for new great leaders to step up.”  I felt God place on my heart that he is giving me a platform to share my experience at Willowcreek. I immediately responded and said yes I would love to share my story.

Everything aligned up perfectly that day, they were recording the interview for the 6pm newscast.  The reporter came to my work at my lunch break and we filmed the interview in a quick 20 minutes.  I got to share my story.

I was extremely nervous before hand. I had reached out to all my friends and family and asked them to pray for me and the interview. I prayed that the story I share would inspire others and be light amongst the darkness. I asked that they pray for me that I would allow God to use me as a vessel.

The prayers worked because when it came time to do the interview, the nerves went away.  It was strange but it almost felt like I had done this so many times before. It felt so natural.  Maybe blogging had prepared me for it, I am not sure, but what I can say I felt as though I was exactly where God wanted me to be and doing what he wanted me to do.

None of this would have happened if I didn’t take the time to dress my soul daily.  I would have missed the whisper. I would have missed the news invite and I would of missed the opportunity to share my story on a platform that reaches so many people.  

Not only is it important for us to dress our souls daily, but it is even more important for the people God wants to reach through us.  So even if we can’t take the time to spend with God to dress our souls for the day, maybe we can do it for the persons who so desperately needs to hear about a hope that can change their lives.

Love in abundance,

Jamie