Introducing The Narrow Gate: Who I am and Why I'm Here

Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it

Hi, welcome to my newsletter! :)

The Narrow Gate will be published on Sunday mornings, and you will receive the first official post on August 30th, 2020. Please subscribe if you would like to receive an e-mail each week to remind you.

I’m really looking forward to embarking on this new project with you, but first I’d like to introduce myself.

My name is Orla. I’m from Ireland and I’m currently living in Vietnam.

2021 Update: I have relocated to Portugal.

Substack:

Before going any further, I want to say how grateful I am to Substack for giving me this opportunity to share my work and to grow more as a writer/blogger.

Honestly, I’ve just started, and the sense I get about Substack is:

1) they are committed to supporting writers

2) they are super relaxed and approachable

They seem to give writers a chance to explore their craft in a safe space while at the same time, reaching a whole new audience.

My Background:  

I was a nurse (RGN) for most of my life (over 20 years), and in my early 30s I started on a journey of change. I wanted to leave nursing and make a fresh start. I was full of hopes and dreams!

However, the transition out of nursing was a much longer venture than I had imagined as I was self-supporting, and the cost of living in Ireland was expensive.

Eventually, as the years were moving on, I knew I had to get serious about making this change or I would be stuck nursing for the rest of my life.

I realized I had become dependent on my nursing salary, and so, with that new awareness, I started to take small steps towards change.

One significant step I took was to do a coaching training course at The Irish Lifecoach Institute. I decided I would become a coach.

That was one of the greatest courses I ever did (and I did many courses, something I later discovered was actually holding me back from attaining success in my life). I loved learning, but I wasn’t so good at putting things into action.

Following that intensive training, I felt empowered and ready to take action. I had a burning desire to put the coaching to immediate use, so, I just went for it!

I set up my first coaching practice.

Not long after I set up my humble coaching practice, I discovered that I would need another income to support it, so I decided to become an English language teacher (I was still a bit hooked on training), but this paid off as it was possible to get a lot of work as a teacher.)

Finally, my life started to move in a new direction. I got UNSTUCK!

I won’t go into all that now, as I have many weeks of newsletters ahead and if you want to know more, you can ask me in the coming weeks or months.

The Newsletter: 

What prompted this? Well, I came to Vietnam in 2017 to gain some teaching experience and to lay down the coaching thing for a while. And after a couple of years out here, the desire to continue "New Creation" started to stir up in me again. 

I wasn’t too happy about this initially, as the first attempt did not provide any decent income and so I didn’t want to waste any more time on it. But, I prayed and then felt led to keep all my work Christian, so as not to confuse people.

The Narrow Gate:

When I discovered that I could write a newsletter on Substack it really appealed to me. It seemed like a nice, gentle way to reach out and interact with my audience as I don't like the idea of a pushy marketing strategy for creating visibility. In fact, when I hear the word STRATEGY, I want to run a mile!

I know we need to find a good marketing strategy to get exposure, but I was looking for something more relaxed, where I could feel comfortable and at ease sharing my work, and Substack felt like the right place to do that.

The narrow gate is about the words Jesus spoke, in the well-known Sermon on the Mount...

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

—Matthew 7:13-14

It seems as though Jesus was discouraging the people from entering through the narrow gate. On the one hand, he’s saying enter through, but then He makes a shift saying, but the gate is small that leads to life, and only a few find it.

• What do you think Jesus is referring to in this passage?

• What is the narrow gate?

I will discuss these questions in my first official post, next Sunday.

I invite you to ponder on this piece of scripture for the week ahead, so next week we will all be on the same page. Pardon the pun!

Feel free to drop me an e-mail if you have any questions or comments and I will address them in my next newsletter.

I'm really looking forward to writing to you each week and I would love to hear your comments on anything I post. I like to think of this newsletter as a time of reflection for both you (the readers), and me. Have a great week!

Blessings,

Orla