For years (and quite possibly even last Tuesday), I tried to explain my life to other people. I wanted friends, family, co-workers, the cashier, and the mailman to understand how busy I was, or how difficult this or that experience was for me.

“You have no idea” was my badge of honor — my favorite motto.

But aside from the fact that I had strapped most of these burdens onto my own back (this post explains some of my problem), “you have no idea” was most certainly true, and it would always be true, even if I talked forever, or wrote it down, or mapped it out in colorful pie charts and bar graphs.

No one gets your life but you.

And that’s ok.

We all want a unique, purposeful, meaningful life. But a unique life always comes with unique burdens few will understand. There’s loneliness in a calling; often the loneliest place we stand is where our true calling is found.

It’s also the place we’re most likely to grow, if we can stop explaining ourselves long enough to listen.

Your life was given to you — only to you — as a gift. It’s your own box of particular joy and heartache through which you come to know God and to serve others.

No one gets your life but you.

As in, no one gets to have it, claim it, find peace in it, and love through it.

Rummaging around to catalog and detail the stuff in your box drains your quiet strength to carry it.

Need to hold on to the double meaning of this truth? Here’s some free iPhone wallpaper for you — just click on the image to go to the full-resolution file.