Wearing red is usually more trouble than it’s worth for me. No matter how hard I try, red dye always seems to bleed onto something in the laundry load. To counteract that, I have to remember to wash it separately.

Have you ever thought about how people can actually be a lot like the color red? Their personalities are so intense they actually bleed onto the people around them. This can be a really bad thing, but on the contrary, it can also be a really good thing.

Lately, I’ve been working on being more “red” for the sake of furthering God’s kingdom. We associate certain qualities with the color red—active, strong, energetic, outgoing, extroverted.

We as believers need a heart geared towards ministering to others in some way. In order to be effective at this, we need to be saturated, bold, vibrant. We need to have a personality that is strong enough to bleed out onto others and influence them.

Those who embody the color red aren’t called to live in solitude; they’re called to spread their contagious energy to those around them. These people are designed by God to inspire others.

Maybe you don’t really see yourself as red or any of it’s qualities. We all need to find a balance within—between introversion and extroversion, between solitude and relationships, between inspiration and expression. Introverts—push yourselves, put yourself out there, and prioritize relationships. Extroverts—get to know yourself better. We all have something unique that’s been given to us and it’s the gift we were meant to give to ourselves and share with others as well.

If you don’t see much red in yourself, I hope you are inspired to try it on sometime. You may just be surprised to find the colors that have been inside of you all along.