talk less.

“I think you’re overthinking it.”

A girl said this to me today at church. I had just met her.

I was explaining how I didn’t know if I was ready to serve on the guest team because I was still getting used to the church and I didn’t know a ton of people there yet, and would I even be effective, and was I the best person for the job, etc, etc. It was a very long answer to a very simple question: did I want to serve?

“I think you’re overthinking it,” the girl next to me said. “I think you should just do it.”

I should just do it.

What? You mean I don’t need to think about every possible way this decision could impact my life and the lives of the people around me? You mean sometimes you can not ponder the long-term ramifications of a single choice for 150 minutes and just…I don’t know, decide something?

My face turned red. “You’re right,” I replied. “I’ll be there next week.”

I’ve been thinking a lot about how much time we waste thinking about things that don’t matter. (The irony of this is not lost on me) At this point, I’ve thought more about what other people would think if I did/said/wrote that thing than about the thing itself.

Every time I have an idea, or something that God has placed in my heart to do/say/write, fear always immediately comes knocking.

“But what if they don’t like it?”

“What will other people think of me?”

“What if this causes the world to EXPLODE into ASHES and we all DIE?”

This is draining and frankly, stupid. Of course the world won’t explode into ashes as a result of something I wrote because climate change will do that long before I have the chance to.

(dark humor very sorry)

So this is me thinking less and doing more. I’ve thought for a long time about doing a bi-weekly newsletter (inspired by my fave writer Hannah Brencher) as a way to consistently write short paragraphs about things that have nothing to do with advertising a pair of shoes - and now I’m actually doing it. I’ll write about God, my job, things I think about on my way to work, my favorite rom-coms, and maybe the cute boys I see at coffee shops and if you don’t like it I’m very sorry but I’m doing it anyway. You can subscribe by putting your name and email address into the fancy button below.

“I’m going to try this new thing where I don’t think for too long about something and I just do it,” I told a friend on the phone yesterday.

“What the hell were you doing before?” she replied.

I laughed. “I don’t really know. Wasting time I guess?”