Know Your Lane

Stay in your lane.

I'm sure you've heard this phrase a million times. If you're anything like me, you probably hear it more than you'd like to. For many years, people have told me that I must stay in my own lane, and truthfully, I never really understood what that meant. Did it mean to focus on what I'm good at and just do it, or did it mean, not to venture off into anything else that I may not be as good at? After asking many different people, I've come to the conclusion that staying in your lane means to stick with what you know you're good at, excel in that area, and not to focus so much on what other people are doing. I agree with this. I find that it's incredibly important to figure out your God-given giftings and work at perfecting them.

However, the more that I thought about this and spoke to other people, I recognized that many persons are unable to stay in their own lane because they have yet to figure out which lane they're meant to be in. Believe it or not, not many people know what they're good at. Not many people know what they are called by God to do. Not many people were as fortunate to grow up knowing that they're gifted in specific areas. For some, it takes a while to discover, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I think that instead of just using the blanket statement, "Stay in your own lane", we should encourage people to firstly know their lane. As a young believer, whenever I heard, "Stay in your lane", I felt that I was at a disadvantage, because I was always trying to figure out which lane that was. At the time, I hadn't grown in many of my giftings, so I was always scrambling to find anything that I might be remotely good at in order to please those around me. You can probably guess what happened. I failed, miserably.

It was only until I began to spend time with God that He began to highlight certain areas that I was gifted in, and open up doors of opportunity to develop those areas. I found that the more time that I spent with God, asking Him questions like, "What am I good at, Lord?", "What do you want me to do?", "What was I placed on this earth for?", He began to show me. I was intentional about asking Him these questions and leaving time for Him to respond. Not only did I learn about what God placed on the inside of me, but I developed more intimacy with Him just by talking to Him regularly about my life and what He wanted me to do with it. If you're one of those people who have yet to discover your lane, I encourage you to ask God. It's as simple as that. Ask Him to reveal to you what you are good at, and when He does, ask Him to help you develop it. There is so much on the inside of you, so many gifts and talents that are meant to be shared and developed. You owe it to yourself to find those areas and to dominate in them.

So, I'll say it again, before you can stay in your lane, firstly, seek to know your lane. Ask God questions, listen for His answers, open yourself to the possibility that God has deposited amazing things on the inside of you that other people desperately need. Seek to know your lane, and remember that the only person who can truly help you to do that is Jesus.