Scars

When you stand on a precipice,
upon the very edge of something and nothing,
It's hard to drag your eyes from the scenery.
You stand, looking at the vast sea
of possibilities before you and think;
Good God, could all that possibly be for me?
Am I really worth all that?
What if I can't reach it?
It all seems so far away,
It couldn't possibly be for me.

Then you look back at all you've come through;
The dust, the mud, the rocky terrain.
All those high points and low points of your life,
Your Journey.
For a minute you believe the lies
That you're too dirty,
too broken,
too low to even achieve that valley below you.

And for just a second, you turn away;
ashamed, humiliated, embarrassed.
Worthless?

Look in the mirror.
Look at all those battle scars,
The places where the rough road dragged you,
Where the spears and arrows whizzed past
And made you give everything you had just to reach the next harsh plain.

Now look at the person beneath those scars.
Do you see the shoulders still bearing the weight?
The heart that still beats stubbornly?
The soul that still yearns to dance?

The world would see your scars and say you're tired;
worn out, bedraggled... used up.

But that is not what the scars say.

The scars say,

“I have been through the battle and survived.
I have fought, to my very last strength,
And come out stronger.
I have faced the desert, the blizzard,
And every foul enemy in front of me

And I am STILL here.

I have earned my stripes,
I have earned my place here
on the precipice.”

So look in the mirror.
What do you choose to see?
Because what you choose will decide
How many of the possibilities
Are yours.