Find what you LOVE... whatever makes you feel alive, what gives you energy, peace, joy, what makes you excited, what you dream about... find those things, and do them.
As often as there are things in life to love and be thankful for, there are just as many things to despise and regret and grow weary of.
Jesus tells us in John 16:33 that, "...In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! [Be of good courage!] I have overcome the world." My translation -- Yes, life is hard. But don't be afraid because you have an everlasting Hope that has already won the battle of life and death. HE is your advocate. You have no reason to live in the bondage of fear.
I'm not trying to ignore those hard things in life that we just don't understand. I don't want to negate the struggles that come up in life. It's definitely not okay to ignore emotions or tensions.
But sometimes I'm pretty sure we hold onto the stress, worry, fear, fill in the blank ____, just a little too long. Then it becomes a part of us. It gets harder and harder to get rid of over time and the line between lie and truth becomes gray and blurry. Sometimes we just get confused and paralyzed and so we (for whatever reason) decide to sit in the midst of that gray, blurry mess and all the while the stress, worry and fear continue to build.
I don't know about you, but that sounds like an AWFUL life.
I don't say "awful" as in "I'm so far removed from such things and have certainly never experienced that...." because that would be a lie. We've all been there. I don't think we always even know how we get there, but it happens.
Again, Jesus says, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that you may have LIFE, and have it to the full" (John 10:10, NIV).
or "My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life." (NLT)
or "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." (NKJV)
Jesus didn't come to Earth as a baby over two thousand years ago, live a perfect life, die on the cross to pay the wages of our sin, then raise from the grave three days later, all so we could live fearfully and fretfully. No way!
Sometimes when I find myself in that gray, blurry mess, I think God says, "Don't you realize everything I've put around you to enjoy? Don't you see the blessings?" Not that He is disappointed, but that He urgently wants me to recognize the life that is to be lived abundantly, EVEN in the midst of a crazy, broken world.
We can look around us everyday and see immense, heart-wrenching brokenness. Just turn on the TV or open a newspaper, for goodness sake.
But dwelling on the brokenness is not the abundant life that Jesus came to offer.
How are you TRULY loving life lately?
Do the things you enjoy.
Spend time with people who encourage you and spur you on to pursue your dreams.
Celebrate everything that life has to offer, the sweet little things that so often get overlooked. They're everywhere.
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