The Crowned Queen

POD #6: Your Royal Highness:

There was a time in my life that I thought I was the crowned queen of the world.  It was a fantasy world that many of the members allowed me to fill.  Yes, my world was small, but I believed that it revolved around me.  When I became a mother, that disillusionment was burst as she became the center of my world.  I admit, we are still trying to break that disillusionment for her (just kidding, well kind of).

I have long since passed the time where I thought I was queen of anything; but if I was to take a crown for anything it would be as a connector.  Being a connector takes many different forms, and I am fully convinced that it is tied to my God-given destiny.  Although I have a bigger dream of doing it, I walk in this role daily.  I still remember the day that God showed me that I was already walking in my dream, it just hasn’t taken the form that I see it taking.

So what does it look like?  I am the person that people call when the need to know something.  Jackie will know.  For some reason, I am a keeper of random information that helps others.  Most of the time, I don’t even know why I know things. or how I learned the information.

I am the person that people call when they need a resource and are not sure where to look.  A random piece of information mentioned in passing, and I file it away in the card catalog of my brain.  I can randomly pull out the resource when I hear a need – a community program, a grant, someone who was thinking about starting something new, someone who wanted to help with a specific thing.  If I don’t know, I will know who to ask to get the information flowing.

I am the go-to-person for policy questions.  I love policy, the black and white of it.  I love the grey area that allows for creative interpretations.  My philosophy is, if its clear  – you follow it.  If you dislike it – you advocate and change it.  If it is grey – you interpret it to the benefit of the person you are trying to help at the moment.  I have gained more than one enemy as people have tried to go against what policy states.   Those same people would come to me later asking for where to find what I quoted.

I can find obscure information online, with reputable backing of the information.  I remember one time this lady had hired a private investigator to find someone, and it was unsuccessful.  Through the course of a few questions and a few key strokes – I had an address and phone number in her hand.  I don’t use sites that require a fee for telephone numbers and addresses – information should be available, and is available for free if you know where to look.

I can connect people with a higher purpose.  I believe most people want to do good.  I have a knack for helping connect people’s desire to help with the vision of others for meeting the need.  As a teenager, I would write letters to government officials connecting them with a vision I had for a needed change.  As I got older, I would connect people with causes that needed donations or volunteers.  I have the ability to take someone’s vision and make it clear so that others will rally to follow it.  My biggest passion is to connect God’s children with the needs in the community so they can be His hand’s and feet as He intended us to be.

My favorite part of connecting, is taking someone with a true need and matching them with someone who can meet it.  Meeting tangible needs, even though not in and of myself, brings me great pleasure.  Being able to connect someone who is trying to get rid of something, or has time, skills, or abilities they want to use with someone who is needing it gives me an adrenaline rush like very few things can.

I am a social worker, so I get to do this daily through my employment.  I volunteer a lot, because I want to see people have their needs met and believe that God blessed me the skills, abilities, knowledge and wisdom to help those who might not know how to help themselves.  I was connecting people with others and with information long before I became a social worker.  I suspect that I will continue connecting people with others and people with information long after I retire.

I feel like I have purpose when I am able to connect people with the things they need or with a higher purpose.  I love hearing people tell their story and connecting them with something that will meet a tangible need.  every now and then, God lets me be the one to meet the need but usually I am just a pit stop or corner on the way to where someone needs to go to get the need met.  I’m okay with that, because that’s what I was made to do.  There are times I get complete lost in trying to help others; time passes but it feels like only a moment.

Until about ten years ago, I never saw this as a unique quality.  I knew what I did.  I knew that I loved connecting people to get their needs met, but it was just me trying to be helpful.  I knew I loved the rules, and knowing them well enough to know what I could get away with was empowering.  Then over and over again, I would have people comment on how I do it so well. It wasn’t just those people who were close to me, but I developed a reputation for helping in this way.

I am okay with the title of Crowned Queen Connector.  I am still learning to accept it, and walk in it freely because I realize it is not in and of myself that I am able to do anything.  But I am the daughter of a King – one day I would have the right to be Queen. I am the Bride of Christ – awaiting His return.  He made me a Queen.  God gave me the desire in my heart; coupled with skills, abilities, knowledge and wisdom to fulfill the plans and purpose He has made me for.  God calls those things which are not as though they were (Romans 4:17), so I will accept that calling.