The first writing in the Inspire 2021 campaign! Be blessed! Introducing........
“Shhhh, She’s Sleeping”
Written by Melenie Medina
The land has been quiet lately. There has been no peace in this place for some time, yet no one is speaking up about it. It seems that everyone is sleeping or is afraid to come out of their own homes to see what is going on.
The only ones communicating are the vultures waiting to see if it is their time to finish the remaining of what is dead in the land. It seems as if these vultures know exactly when to come in and pick at the harvests and discourage further growth.
In this land lies a woman who has not always been asleep. The storms, the conditions of the land, and the constant fighting off vultures have driven her to a state of deep slumber. She feels too weak to awaken, but she is not at peace in this sleep. She can hear her surroundings as if she was in a dream, but she is not able to speak. She hears the footsteps of all those who come and go but do not enter. She is hoping someone would come and stop by to wake her from the nightmare she is stuck in, but no one does. Her heart rate accelerates in hope that the footsteps she hears would be ones of hope and bring awakening so she may live.
There are many that celebrate the baron land and pass by the home saying, “Shhh she’s sleeping, we must not wake her. For if she were to awaken, things in the land would change”. The vultures circle the home to see if she has awakened as well. They also say “Shhh she’s sleeping, if she wakes up we will have nothing to come and devour”.
There are sounds from the church that penetrate the walls of her home. These words of life that have traveled down to her have been keeping her from dying in her sleep. When she hears the words of the Lord, it brings light into the home that starts to peek through the curtains, which begin to awake her. The enemy that has taken residence in her home begins to see that she is trying to wake up and says, “Shhh she’s sleeping”, and closes the curtains making sure that light does not come in and penetrate the walls of the home.
Loved ones have come to the home to see if she has yet awakened or if there’s any sign of life in her field. They knock at the door of her home with no answer. They stand at the door and speak in hopes that the message would awaken the sleeping woman inside. They speak words of truth, hope, love and words of the Lord... There is movement, she’s starting to wake up...then that uninvited guest comes to the door and says, “Shhh she’s sleeping.”
The people say, “Why can’t she wake up? What have you caused? What will happen if she awakens?”
He replies, “Don’t you know who she is? Don’t you know the power she possesses? She can kick me out and banish me from her home and this land. I am comfortable here. We have learned to live with each other”.
The uninvited guest knew that the woman was fierce. She was a force that could not be reckoned with because of Christ that was in her. All the labor in the field that she had done over the years made her strong. It conditioned her to not waiver but withstand the hard seasons. This is why it was so vital to the unwelcomed guest that she could not be awakened. The strength, that purpose, that joy and faith would be awakened as well. That is what made her so dangerous. The people that needed her, needed her to be awakened.
She had to fight to wake up from the deep sleep she was in. She needed to pull off the heavy layers of blankets that were keeping her in place of stagnancy, she needed to look for the cracks of light that were trying to break into the room. The voices of the loved ones at the door and the sounds coming in from the church is just what she needed to open her eyes again and is what pulled her out of that bed. It was time for her to arise! It was time for her to stand! It was time for her to walk and take out every dark thing in and around her home. That uninvited guest needed to go and she needed to walk in the love that has been desperately waiting for her.
The family, the home, the atmosphere she so desperately craved to have established in her was now a possibility because she no longer was asleep. She is now fully AWAKE, fully ALIVE, and fully AWARE.
About the author:
Melenie Medina works as a Behavioral Therapist for children with autism.
Hobbies: I love to do all things creative. I enjoy painting, baking, restoring furniture and working out...(I have become a little bit of a gym head).
When did you become interested in writing? My first interest in writing began when I was very young. My mother always kept a journal, one day I stumbled upon it in her room and began to read it. I was not sure what I was expecting to find, but what went from just a glance of curiosity turned into full amazement of the power and compassion in my mothers writing. I sat on the floor of her bedroom saying, “I want to be like my mom, I want to write like this.” I then began writing letters to my mom and would leave them for her around the house, with writing “you got mail” on the front of them. That became our everyday thing. I would wake up to letters in my room from my mother and she would stumble upon my replies wherever I left her the letter that day. Fast forward to years later... I continued journaling and let out all my feelings out on paper. It wasn't until college where I began to explore writing further. The more I explored the more I fell in love with the different forms of writing.
What inspired you to write this particular article? I have gone through many hard seasons in my life for what feels like...well... my whole life. But in my adult years there have been many battles that I have endured that I never thought I would walk through. Writing has always has been a powerful outlet in my life. I have always felt misunderstood by many because I don't fit into a mold of a certain type. I don't fit into the cookie cutter Christian mold, nor do I fit into a “worldly” mold. Often times I find myself not being able to fully express myself with verbal words but instead being able to fully communicate what I want to say through my writing. I found my voice through my writing and it has been such a blessing to my life.
Have you written any other articles? I have written other articles in the past. I actually had begun a blog about 2 years ago but life got busy and I felt discouraged and inadequate. I did not think anyone would really care what I had to say. That was the end of that portion of my public writing and I just kept them to myself. There are moments where I miss it but I am not sure that is what the Lord has for me right now. I believe this is currently a way I communicate with God and have deep conversations and revelations, and I am satisfied with that right now.
Where is your favorite place to write? I love to write in peaceful places. I love going to different coffee shops and writing or reading something that inspires me. I love also sitting at a park, or an outdoor patio, or at the beach and just getting lost in the beauty of creation while I quiet my soul and just pour out what I have been feeling, or what I hear God tell me.
Is there anything you do to prepare to write? Typically I like to turn off my phone and listen to instrumental or worship music. I tune out the world and allow myself to just pour out my soul on paper and then go back into it and sort through all that came out and ask God what He is trying to show me through what I just laid out on the table.
How do you choose the subjects you write about? I usually go based off of what is pressing on my heart, because there are moments where it just lingers for days in the back of my mind and I see little things all around me that would be analogies or phrases that would correlate with what is on my heart. For instance this piece “Shhh She’s Sleeping” has been on my heart for some time and it was thing after thing that would bring me to tears when I would think about the revelation that the Lord was giving me in regards to what was already placed on my heart.
Who is your biggest inspiration? I love many different authors but my top favorite would be CS Lewis, Lisa Bevere, Hannah Brencher, and Levi Lusko. They all differ in writing styles but they all have one thing in common and that is that they all paint the real raw pictures of what a walk with Christ looks like. They are all so transparent with the good, the bad and the ugly in life sometimes, but in the end bring it back to how God is the only way they are able to keep going. I find myself relating to this style of writing because it speaks measures to my soul and helps me to feel like I’m not alone in the way I am feeling. That is something I hope to achieve when someone reads my writing.
I think you would all join with me to tell Melenie to KEEP WRITING!!!
I'm honored to share Melenie's writing on the Smallest Victories website! There is so much power that this writing contains. It depicts how we can become complacent in our walks as Christians and how somedays when we feel we have no strength left to fight the battles we are fighting, we tend to lose hope and give up. Sometimes we feel the fight is just too hard and we go into a slumber (so-to-say) and that's exactly where the enemy wants us. He want's us complacent and to keep walking the wrong direction. He want's us sleeping!! This article written by Melenie is a reality check! Thank you Ms. Medina!! You allowed God to speak heavily through your writing.