Your Art Matters
A little note before you dive in….
Originally published in The Wednesday Diaries.
These words first appeared in my weekly newsletter, The Wednesday Diaries, a place where I share stories from everyday life, lessons I'm learning, books I'm loving, and encouragement for the week ahead.
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In early February, I opened the Facebook app, and the very first thing I saw was an article I wrote seven years ago shared in a Twenty One Pilots Christian group I'm in.
I joined the group back in 2024 to meet other fans of the band and have a sense of community. I rarely posted or spoke in the group, but I loved seeing the fan posts. The last thing I ever expected was to see something I wrote shared with the group.
For a moment, I just stared at my screen in disbelief. But after clicking on the article and seeing my name beneath the headline, a huge smile spread across my face.
The person who shared it talked about how much they loved it, and there were multiple comments from people saying it resonated with them. It had over 100 likes.
I wrote the article in 2019, originally published it on Medium, and later shared it on my blog after I built my website in 2020.
Back when I wrote that article, I was a sophomore in college. Thanks to my amazing brother, I got to attend three shows on the Bandito Tour within a year. Those nights with Twenty One Pilots genuinely changed my life, and writing that article became my way of processing what God had done in my heart through those shows.
I have never had a moment where I've found anything I've written shared online by strangers. It was such a cool moment, and I went on my lunch break trying to hold back tears and just thanking God.
It was such a reminder to me that words matter.
Even years later.
Even when, at the time I wrote it, I knew not everyone would get what I was trying to say.
I've always believed that words carry weight, and moments like this make me believe it even more. I think I was put on this earth to write things that lift people up and speak to them. I know not everything I write will resonate with everyone, but for the people it does reach… it matters.
So if you've ever felt discouraged, unseen, or tempted to stop creating or sharing, this is your sign to keep going.
You truly never know what will speak to someone, or when.
My friend Josh told me that the good we put out there in the world helps people, and he couldn't be more spot on!
I can tell you I desperately needed this reminder as I struggle to share anything I've written these days. The world right now is crazy; our attention spans are, quite frankly, nonexistent, and we want to mindlessly scroll without engaging with what we're seeing.
As a creative person, I find that pretty discouraging. But this happening was such an answered prayer for me and a sign to do it anyway.
This is one of the reasons I finally decided to start this newsletter. For years, I've talked myself out of it.
But seeing those words resurface seven years later felt like God gently reminding me that what we create can have a life far beyond the moment we hit publish.
Sometimes we never get to see the impact.
And sometimes, if we're lucky, we get a glimpse.
If you're curious to read the article I wrote back then, it's on my blog!
Before I go, here's a question I'd love for you to sit with:
What's something you've almost given up on that might be worth one more try?
For me, it was writing.
Maybe for you it's something completely different. Whatever it is, I hope you'll find the courage to give it another chance. Sometimes the things we think are finished are only just beginning.
Your friend,
Jessalyn