"Marketability"

I've been thinking...

I know, a scary thought, right?   Some of you know me well enough to know that there has been a running joke the past few years surrounding the concept of "marketability."

One might ask, what in the world is marketability?  I'm sure you're curious.  I know I was when the term was first coined.  Marketability is the idea of doing things or increasing your expertise in an area that will make you more appealing or "marketable" in the dating world.  The term first came about in 2009 among a close knit group of friends (I will not mention names, but you know who you are) and it sort of just stuck, turning into a fun little joke.  The joke was normally about me and all the things that I do and can do (in the future) to increase my own personal "marketability."

I suppose we can make a list of what would make a person "marketable" so you get an idea of how some of our conversations went.  Sound fair?

Here we go...

1.  Cooking/Baking
2.  Skiing/Snowboarding
3.  Skydiving
4.  White Water Rafting
5.  Camping/Backpacking/Hiking
6.  Vegan Cooking/Baking
7.  Disc Golf
8.  Job status
9.  Debt to income ratio
10.  Mission minded
11.  Ability to make people laugh
12.  Voice Instruction
13.  Playing some type of musical instrument
14.  Saving lives
15.  Zip lining/Ropes Course
16.  Working well with kids
17.  Tennis
18.  Running

Okay, the list goes on people... I could go all day jotting down tasks/items that people do everyday that could be tied into an "increase" in "marketability."

There's a catch...

All this time we've (or I've) had it wrong!   How can this be?!  I recently read this little nugget from a friend's blog...

"You don’t have to impress anyone. You don’t have to try so hard to be be noticed. Let God choose who He wants to let see the real you—the you He found worth dying for."

Wait, what? Rewind for just a second and read that over...

"You don't have to impress anyone..."

"Let God choose who He wants to let see the real you..."

"the you He found worth dying for."

"the  YOU He found worth DYING for."

It hit me like a ton of bricks too!

All this time and effort spent in making sure I was "well-rounded" or "marketable" was non-sense.  All of the daunting thoughts of being "plain," "not good enough," and "boring" don't hold up.  In fact, those thoughts are toxic.  Just what the devil wants me to think.  God will carefully choose who He will let see the "real" me (and the real you).

Why?  Because to Him we are valued beyond compare.  He found us worth dying for.  That is the biggest "marketability" anyone of us could ask for.


As far as life goes, I've slowly been trucking.

I just got back from California.  I was there for the wedding of Becky Yates and Dustin Page.  How beautiful it was.

A little visit to Yosemite!

Shortly, actually the day after getting back from California, I packed up and drove to Laurel Lake Camp, where I spent the week as the camp nurse!  What an amazing blessing it was to be there.  Watching the lives of children and families being transformed.  It doesn't get any better.

Since I've returned from camp, I've packed up my whole apartment in Elizabethtown, PA and I'm moving back home to Landenberg, PA.  I've gone per diem at Hershey Medical Center.  Per Diem: As needed.  Picking up hours when I want them or am available to work them.  This will allow for more flexibility in traveling and mission work.

I'm leaving for Nicaragua on Wednesday with Share Him and Pioneer Memorial Church (on the campus of Andrews University).  I'm excited to see how God is going to work on this trip! I'm sure I'll have lots of stories when I return!

Until then friends.

Stay well!