Kimberlee K.

At a recent church sermon I attended, the pastor talked about “taking your treasure out of the box.”

She went into the idea that we are all designed specifically and carefully and given gifts (a.k.a treasures) that we can choose to either share or not share with the world.

In today’s society, hobbies, gifts, and ideas are being highlighted and encouraged. A near compulsive desire to share is bringing individual identities to the forefront, and inspiring us all to put ourselves out there and try something new.

That being said, there is also a near unspoken shame that comes with sharing ourselves online. Not because of who we are or what we’re doing, but because of the attention—or namely the lack thereof—that we may get in doing so.

Entire careers are made from sharing pieces of your life online, and it is enticing to see uniqueness celebrated on a large scale. We all want to be seen and accepted for who we are, and when we see others receiving positive attention, we crave it even more.

But, when we share pieces of ourselves—whether that’s our life, our art, etc.—online and it doesn’t get the kind of attention we see other people get, when we post something and it is barely viewed, only occasionally “liked” and rarely commented on, we have been taught to let this impact our view of ourselves.

Even large scale creators have admitted to deleting posts that did not perform well. Granted, this might have more to do with their desire/need to create content that will continue to earn them an income, but there is no doubt that a small piece is attributed to the near embarrassment that comes with sharing something that doesn’t go viral.

I know that in my writing, I’ve struggled in the past to continue posting because I have never gained the kind of traction that I’ve seen other people get. I have never “blown up” and reached a point where I am getting so many views that I can turn this hobby into a career, or where I feel like I’m reaching thousands, if not millions of people.

There have been times when my lower numbers have made me feel like my writing doesn’t matter or that it’s simply not good enough.

But then I’ll have a friend or family member tell me that a post really resonated with them, and I’m forced to reconsider this mindset and confront the things that have led me to believe that the small crowd I’m reaching “isn’t enough.”

I have to remind myself what it means to “take my treasure out of the box” and realize that virality doesn’t increase the worth of that treasure.

We are told too often to focus on numbers, to let them decide if we’re making a meaningful impact. But as someone who has read a blog post or a book, who has seen a piece of art in a museum or listened to a song, who has watched a movie or scrolled past a picture on social media that made me feel. As someone who has found something created by someone else that has made the world seem less scary and/or my life make more sense, I am so thankful that person had the courage to put it out into the world.

Whether they did it for an already established audience, or for little more than their family and friends, somehow it found its way to me, perhaps across the world, perhaps years in the future, and that is magical. It is connection that we’ll never be able to track, and it’s all because someone had the courage to take their treasure out of the box.

I hope you’ll consider sharing your treasure with the world. Not because it might make you money, not because it might make you popular, but because it will feel meaningful to share, and it just might change someone’s life—even if you never know about it.

Take your treasure out of the box, you never know who needs it most.