RED: Rewa Encourages Dreamers

Imagination:  /iˌmajəˈnāSH(ə)n/  (noun) the faculty or action of forming new ideas, or images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses; the ability of the mind to be creative or resourceful

As a little girl, I had a vivid imagination.  I used everything in my young world to create characters and to tell their stories. 

For example, I had an imaginary friend.  Did you have one?  Surely I’m not the only one.  My friend’s name was June the Third.  It’s random, I know.  Don’t ask me where the name came from; I couldn’t tell you.  But yes…  June the Third. 

But I had dolls too.  A lot of them.  Barbies, Cabbage Patch Kids, adoption dolls.    

Again, it’s random, but I also played with perfume bottles.  My mom’s bottles were different colors, different sizes and different styles.  To me, my mom’s bottles were just like people.  One time, though, I broke one of her small, French bottles.  I just knew that I’d get in trouble.  But I didn’t.  I’m guessing that she probably thought, “That’s just Rewa.” 

By middle school, with June the Third long gone, my dolls packed away and my mom’s perfume bottles forgotten, I’d picked up a pen.  And in a 3-prong, yellow notebook full of filler paper, I started to write.    

In junior high and high school, I wrote for my schools’ newspapers and yearbooks. 

In college and career, I wrote broadcasting scripts.  

And then, after years of it stirring and kicking in the womb of my heart, in January of 2020, I gave birth to The RED PRESSpective.  As I sat by the computer, with my hands idling over the keyboard, I was both excited and terrified.  It took everything in me to press “Publish” on that first blog.  But with that one, final push, Behold(en) came forth.    

Two years later, The RED PRESSpective is learning to speak.  She’s toddling, but she’s finding her voice.   

Now, looking back, I remember that broken bottle, with its perfume spilling across the bathroom floor.  That seemingly meaningless moment has proven to be a foreshadow of the alabaster box that is now The RED PRESSpective. 

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” – Ephesians 3:20 NIV

The National Today website says, “During the month of March, we give a little extra attention to all of the amazing accomplishments of strong, determined women.  Since 1987, the United States has formally recognized March as National Women’s History Month.  Every woman has a story to tell and gifts to share with the world.” 

Today and every day, The RED PRESSpective aims to do just that.

With every press, with every “Publish,” there’s a shout in my soul telling me not to do it.  “Who do you think that you are?”  “No one’s going to understand it.”  “Nobody’s going to read it.”  “Why are you doing this?  No one cares anyway.”  “You’re not a real writer.”  “You can’t do this.”  “You heard God wrong.”

And then comes this whisper in my spirit that dares me to go ahead and do it.  “The vision is yet for an appointed time…”  “…for such a time as this.”  “Your gift will make room for you…”  “For I know the plans that I have for you…”  “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…”  Press “Publish,” Rewa. 

And I do it.

And I can’t imagine not.

I am no Ann Voskamp or Sarah Jakes Roberts, but I am Rewa Pressley.  And I’m starting to believe that that’s enough.

Maybe you’re not an entertainer like Misty Copeland.  But you’re you and that’s enough.  Maybe you’re not an entrepreneur like Oprah Winfrey.  But you’re you and that’s enough.  Maybe you’re not an educator like Mary Mcleod Bethune.  But you’re you and that’s enough.  Maybe you’re not an executive like Rosalind Brewer.  But you’re you and that’s enough.  Maybe you’re not an elected official like Winnie Mandela.  But you’re you and that’s enough.  And maybe you’re not even a mom like Claire Huxtable.          

But just be uniquely you.  That’s enough. 

Today, I’m here to enCOURAGE my sisters.  Dream, girl, dream.  Rediscover that little girl who thought that anything was possible.  Who did you want to be?  What did you want to do?  What idea, product or service is in you, waiting to be conceived?  If you took the limits off, where could your imagination take you?  What world could it open up to you? What would it challenge you to create? 

The word “imagination” comes from the Latin “imaginari,” a verb that means “picture to oneself.”

What do you see?

 A self-perspective of sorts. 

Dreamer, if your image of yourself isn’t consistent with what God says, then your image is distorted.  Dreamer, don’t allow a negative self-image to keep you from maximizing your gift.  Dreamer, wake up to the call on your life.  Dreamer, use your currency; there’s an exchange that you’re expected to make in the earth.  Dreamer, use your talent.  

Dreamer, live in color. 

PRINCIPLE: So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’  His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ – Matthew 25:20-21