Thursday, September 15, 2011
Discipline and self-control
So, I've never really been someone that would have said, when other people think of me, they think of a guy with a lot of self-control. And I've never really seen my self as someone with a lot of self-control either. This summer has been a really good one. I've spent a lot of time learning about God, myself, relationships. For a while, people could have asked me if my faith was changing my life....although most people don't ask you that. I firmly believe that if we have faith in and a relationship with Jesus Christ, that relationship will change our lives. I was very frustrated that my life was staying the same, I was just doing what I wanted to do, when I wanted to do it. I DIDN'T need to rely on God for things like, FOOD, WATER, SHELTER, RELATIONSHIPS, FINANCES. I was self-sufficient, and stale. A lot of the reading that I've been doing in the Bible this summer has been in Ezekiel, which is a crazy book, those prophets did not live easy lives. God does things over and over to get the attention of his people, to let them know that just meeting together once in a while, and singing the right songs and saying the right prayers is not a relationship!!! He wants us to follow him throughout the week, in our everyday lives. He wants to change our hearts, and see us serve in compassion for the people around us. It's so easy to write off the world vision ads we see on tv, and the news about the famine in africa because we don't live there. We don't see people dying everyday because they're hungry. How would you feel if everyone around you was in danger of dying every day because they didn't have enough food? But that doesn't happen here in North America, does it...everyone has more than enough food. I'm sick of having more than enough. It makes me want to cry for the people who have nothing. There are so many people that have had their hope stripped from them, along with everything else. Why do we sit here in our comfy houses, talk about it, and do nothing? DO SOMETHING! If your faith in Christ doesn't make your heart break for those who are hurting, you may need to spend some more time alone with Christ, examining what it is in your life that is hindering your relationship with Christ. It's easy to put other things first in our lives, and we here this over and over, but do we really think about it. If ANYTHING is more important to us than Christ, and following his example of ministering to the sick, something is wrong...Our COMFORT cannot be our GOD, our MONEY cannot be our GOD, our PLEASURE cannot be our GOD! These are things that often take up the majority of my thoughts, doing what I want, when I want, so I can be comfortable. Instead maybe let's try LOVING GOD, and LOVING PEOPLE as ourselves. These two things will change your life! Jesus is alive and working all around, we just need to open our eyes to see it, and join him. He's working everywhere, it's not as though we need to go across the sea to find him at work. Let's go on a spiritual diet maybe? cut out all the crap. spiritual junk food. Jesus is real, and he says that if we seek him, we will find him. If we seek him with all our heart!!!
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Summer!!!
I love Summer! Warmth, green things, water, sun, bugs. Well, I can't say that I like the bugs, but it's part of the package. I love being able to spend time at the beach, swimming, biking, walking, hanging out around the fire. I love camping. Going on sweet roadtrips with sweet dudes that I don't see very often. I love having time to reflect on my life, and refocus, and process through lessons that God has been teaching me over the past months. I really don't do that enough.
Another thing that I love, is getting to spend time with the people that I love. My friends inspire me, and accept me for who I am. For those things, I love them! My girlfriend is willing to follow me around to all sorts of events with all sorts of people who she may or may not know, and doesn't complain about it being awkward, even though it might be sometimes.
I feel good right now. I am content with where I am, and am excited about the rest of the summer that I have to continue to do all the fun things that I love, with all the awesome people that I know. I really don't have much more to say, except that God is good, and I thank him for summer!
Another thing that I love, is getting to spend time with the people that I love. My friends inspire me, and accept me for who I am. For those things, I love them! My girlfriend is willing to follow me around to all sorts of events with all sorts of people who she may or may not know, and doesn't complain about it being awkward, even though it might be sometimes.
I feel good right now. I am content with where I am, and am excited about the rest of the summer that I have to continue to do all the fun things that I love, with all the awesome people that I know. I really don't have much more to say, except that God is good, and I thank him for summer!
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Life Lessons
I'm not very good at writing long blog posts, so this will be a quick one. Life is stressful. I seem to always like to distract myself rather than actually dealing with stresses in my life. Maybe it is because I don't have the answers, so I try to put decision-making and dealing with problems off until I feel like I have the capacity to deal with them. Unfortunately, life doesn't stop happening long enough for me to figure everything out before I need to deal with it.
I try to lean on my own strength far too often. I am proud, I am selfish, I am unworthy. Despite all of these things, Jesus calls me his! I am his child, adopted into his family and he loves me! These things bring me joy, although I often focus more on the negative things, than on his truth and promises. God is good, even if life isn't all the time. His strength will suffice.
Be Blessed!
I try to lean on my own strength far too often. I am proud, I am selfish, I am unworthy. Despite all of these things, Jesus calls me his! I am his child, adopted into his family and he loves me! These things bring me joy, although I often focus more on the negative things, than on his truth and promises. God is good, even if life isn't all the time. His strength will suffice.
Be Blessed!
Friday, January 7, 2011
Taking a Break and Being Real
Hey all,
Being busy is good, and it sucks. I had two weeks off from work for Christmas, about half of that time was spent at gatherings and parties, while the other half was spent road-tripping to the west coast and back with some buddies. Throughout the whole time I realized that with how busy I was, I didn't have a lot of time to just relax. Granted, there were times throughout the whole "break" where I was relaxing, and spending time not doing a whole lot. The thing is, I think that often we try to busy ourselves, that it gets to be a bit ridiculous. We often forget to take care of ourselves, or even to know what that looks like. I have some thoughts on what it takes to take care of yourself. I'd say that I am a relatively stress-free person. Emphasis on relatively. There are things that stress me out at times, but I think that I am pretty effective at distracting myself from the things that stress me out.
Two thoughts: DO THINGS THAT BRING YOU JOY! and DO FUN THINGS, FOR FUN! It's super easy to get bogged down and frustrated with life, and the worries and stresses that get us down. It can be hard to want to do fun things, or take time to do things that we enjoy when we feel we have obligations to fulfill. Perhaps we all need to take more time to just have fun. I used to want to postpone growing up. I thought that grown-ups had all sorts of problems that I didn't want to have. They were always stressed out. I think that it can get to be that way sometimes, but we need to take time for ourselves, to do things that bring us joy, and fill us up with a love for life.
Sometimes it can be hard to think of things that bring us joy, when we feel as though it has been a long time since we felt joyful. I suggest trying to recall the last time you were really, truly joyful. What were you doing? Maybe try doing that again. Perhaps we need to take a page out of a child's book, and learn how to play again. Spend some time just goofing around, and not trying to pretend like we have it all together. It's hard work pretending to be alright all the time. I think a lot of times when I do that, I'm probably trying harder to convince myself then anybody else that I'm alright. As the body of Christ, we should share in each other's joys, and each other sorrows. If we just want to support each other in the times of joy, it would seem that we are missing half of the spectrum. If we take more time to play, we likely won't be as stressed. So play with your friends, do things that will bring joy to each others lives! Praise God for he has made each of us unique and with gifts to help each other out, and build each other up. You are all made in the image of God, and he loves you!!!
I'm a follower of Christ, but I don't know it all, and I don't have it all together. Life is messy, messy is real. I want to be real.
"This is the day the Lord has made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24 (NLT)
Being busy is good, and it sucks. I had two weeks off from work for Christmas, about half of that time was spent at gatherings and parties, while the other half was spent road-tripping to the west coast and back with some buddies. Throughout the whole time I realized that with how busy I was, I didn't have a lot of time to just relax. Granted, there were times throughout the whole "break" where I was relaxing, and spending time not doing a whole lot. The thing is, I think that often we try to busy ourselves, that it gets to be a bit ridiculous. We often forget to take care of ourselves, or even to know what that looks like. I have some thoughts on what it takes to take care of yourself. I'd say that I am a relatively stress-free person. Emphasis on relatively. There are things that stress me out at times, but I think that I am pretty effective at distracting myself from the things that stress me out.
Two thoughts: DO THINGS THAT BRING YOU JOY! and DO FUN THINGS, FOR FUN! It's super easy to get bogged down and frustrated with life, and the worries and stresses that get us down. It can be hard to want to do fun things, or take time to do things that we enjoy when we feel we have obligations to fulfill. Perhaps we all need to take more time to just have fun. I used to want to postpone growing up. I thought that grown-ups had all sorts of problems that I didn't want to have. They were always stressed out. I think that it can get to be that way sometimes, but we need to take time for ourselves, to do things that bring us joy, and fill us up with a love for life.
Sometimes it can be hard to think of things that bring us joy, when we feel as though it has been a long time since we felt joyful. I suggest trying to recall the last time you were really, truly joyful. What were you doing? Maybe try doing that again. Perhaps we need to take a page out of a child's book, and learn how to play again. Spend some time just goofing around, and not trying to pretend like we have it all together. It's hard work pretending to be alright all the time. I think a lot of times when I do that, I'm probably trying harder to convince myself then anybody else that I'm alright. As the body of Christ, we should share in each other's joys, and each other sorrows. If we just want to support each other in the times of joy, it would seem that we are missing half of the spectrum. If we take more time to play, we likely won't be as stressed. So play with your friends, do things that will bring joy to each others lives! Praise God for he has made each of us unique and with gifts to help each other out, and build each other up. You are all made in the image of God, and he loves you!!!
I'm a follower of Christ, but I don't know it all, and I don't have it all together. Life is messy, messy is real. I want to be real.
"This is the day the Lord has made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24 (NLT)
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Apathy, Change, and Radical Relationship
Hey readers,
I posted this as my facebook status yesterday:
"...From the least to the greatest, their lives are ruled by greed. From prophets to priests, they are all frauds...Are they ashamed of their disgusting actions? Not at all-they don't even know how to blush!...Stop at the crossroads and look around. Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls." Jeremiah 6:13-16 (NLT)
Obviously, this is not the passage in its entirety. Facebook only allows a certain amount of characters in a status update. I have been thinking a lot lately about things like, Apathy, Change, and Radical Relationship like the title of this post says. These things arise out of my current state of restlessness about my own relationship with the Creator.
I often have periods of time where I feel really restless about my life, and feel as though I need to change things. Usually this means I think about radically altering the physical space that I am in, for example, thinking about moving to a different country or something extreme like that. I am realizing that this might not solve the thing that is causing me to be anxious or restless. Perhaps it is the Holy Spirit within me rebelling against certain things in my life that are hindering me from putting time and effort into my relationship with Christ, or perhaps God is actually calling me to go somewhere, or perhaps calling me to prepare myself for whatever may come in the next step in the journey we call life.
Apathy:
It seems to me that in this day and age of instantaneous media exposure and constant connectedness that apathy is rising. There are a lot of things the media tells are are fine, good, and acceptable. I'm sure that God would not approve of a lot of these things that we find normal and socially acceptable. I want to take a stab at sexual innuendo, there is so much sexual innuendo woven into dialogs and interactions on television and movies that it seems that saying things that are derogatory towards women are acceptable and even praised. I think that in a previous post I talked about "That's what she said..." jokes. I don't approve of these jokes anymore, even though at one point I prided myself at being "quick-witted" enough to beat my friends to the punch when it came to making these jokes. When we overlook things like the way that we talk, and the way in which we use our speech we ignore the clear warnings in scripture that the tongue is dangerous and we need to be aware of what we are saying and how it affects people around us as well as our own lives. The more we choose to let little things slide, the easier it will be to let bigger things slide. The way we talk is a representation of what's really in our hearts and minds. If we are to be ambassadors of Christ, shouldn't our speech be righteous and honorable and pure? We are all human, and make mistakes, but don't use this as a cop-out to not think about what you say.
Change:
In life, things are constantly changing. You can choose to accept this fact and adapt to what's going on around you, or you can take offense to every change that comes along and do your best to be a stick in the mud. I'll admit that often I have the urge to change things, just for the sake of changing them. This can be beneficial, and other times not so beneficial. I think that in my life, my focus has been distracted from my relationship with God a lot. I want to change that. I want to become a better person, but I've recently been thinking about that desire, and finding that as much as I try to change myself, which works for a time. I need to be focusing on knowing God more, rather than being better at looking like I know God. If I get to know God more, my actions, thoughts, and desires will change, and transformation will occur from the inside out. I want my life to be changed by the real relational knowledge of God, and time spent in his presence. Because, if I'm just changing because I want to be better, and not because I am getting to know God better, then I'm missing something vital. God is love, and he wants to share his love with us, so we can share it with others. God has promised that we will find him when we look for him, if we search with all our heart. (Jeremiah 29:13)
Radical Relationship:
As with a lot of my posts the topics I discuss all kind of overlap. I have been pondering the questions of "Why is Christ important in my life? Why would anyone who is not a believer need to believe in Christ?" These questions come to my mind because of my current job/ministry. I work with students who may or may not believe in Jesus, and may or may not care about knowing him. If being a good person is what Christianity is all about; putting on a mask that says everything is alright, and I love Jesus and am a good person. If bettering ourselves is all Christianity is about, then the message of Christ is irrelevant. Then we can get to heaven by doing good works, and nothing else matters. Jesus is the key, because a relationship with him will transform us. It should transform us. Thinking about this has caused me to realize that I have spent too much time trying to become a better person and do everything on my own strength and understanding. I need to lean on Christ, to spend time with him in prayer, and reading his word so that I can know him better. If I can know his heart, and experience his love, then there is a relationship. In youth a few weeks ago we were discussing the truth of Christ's second coming, and how his coming again will/should affect our lives. Most youth said that it should affect our lives more, but that it really didn't a whole lot right now. We need to spend more time building a relationship with God. If we have a vibrant relationship with him, we will be excited that he'll come back right? I want to be ecstatic at thinking about Christ returning to the Earth. I want to have a relationship with him that is deep, rich, and enduring. A relationship that affects my life and changes me, changes the way that I live and the decisions I make. If busyness is what is hindering your relationship with Christ, you are losing out on the experience of his love and need to unbusy yourself and MAKE TIME for GOD. He sent Jesus to die to save us from our sins so we could be in relationship with him, what have we sacrificed to work at that relationship?
Glory and Praise to the Almighty!
I posted this as my facebook status yesterday:
"...From the least to the greatest, their lives are ruled by greed. From prophets to priests, they are all frauds...Are they ashamed of their disgusting actions? Not at all-they don't even know how to blush!...Stop at the crossroads and look around. Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls." Jeremiah 6:13-16 (NLT)
Obviously, this is not the passage in its entirety. Facebook only allows a certain amount of characters in a status update. I have been thinking a lot lately about things like, Apathy, Change, and Radical Relationship like the title of this post says. These things arise out of my current state of restlessness about my own relationship with the Creator.
I often have periods of time where I feel really restless about my life, and feel as though I need to change things. Usually this means I think about radically altering the physical space that I am in, for example, thinking about moving to a different country or something extreme like that. I am realizing that this might not solve the thing that is causing me to be anxious or restless. Perhaps it is the Holy Spirit within me rebelling against certain things in my life that are hindering me from putting time and effort into my relationship with Christ, or perhaps God is actually calling me to go somewhere, or perhaps calling me to prepare myself for whatever may come in the next step in the journey we call life.
Apathy:
It seems to me that in this day and age of instantaneous media exposure and constant connectedness that apathy is rising. There are a lot of things the media tells are are fine, good, and acceptable. I'm sure that God would not approve of a lot of these things that we find normal and socially acceptable. I want to take a stab at sexual innuendo, there is so much sexual innuendo woven into dialogs and interactions on television and movies that it seems that saying things that are derogatory towards women are acceptable and even praised. I think that in a previous post I talked about "That's what she said..." jokes. I don't approve of these jokes anymore, even though at one point I prided myself at being "quick-witted" enough to beat my friends to the punch when it came to making these jokes. When we overlook things like the way that we talk, and the way in which we use our speech we ignore the clear warnings in scripture that the tongue is dangerous and we need to be aware of what we are saying and how it affects people around us as well as our own lives. The more we choose to let little things slide, the easier it will be to let bigger things slide. The way we talk is a representation of what's really in our hearts and minds. If we are to be ambassadors of Christ, shouldn't our speech be righteous and honorable and pure? We are all human, and make mistakes, but don't use this as a cop-out to not think about what you say.
Change:
In life, things are constantly changing. You can choose to accept this fact and adapt to what's going on around you, or you can take offense to every change that comes along and do your best to be a stick in the mud. I'll admit that often I have the urge to change things, just for the sake of changing them. This can be beneficial, and other times not so beneficial. I think that in my life, my focus has been distracted from my relationship with God a lot. I want to change that. I want to become a better person, but I've recently been thinking about that desire, and finding that as much as I try to change myself, which works for a time. I need to be focusing on knowing God more, rather than being better at looking like I know God. If I get to know God more, my actions, thoughts, and desires will change, and transformation will occur from the inside out. I want my life to be changed by the real relational knowledge of God, and time spent in his presence. Because, if I'm just changing because I want to be better, and not because I am getting to know God better, then I'm missing something vital. God is love, and he wants to share his love with us, so we can share it with others. God has promised that we will find him when we look for him, if we search with all our heart. (Jeremiah 29:13)
Radical Relationship:
As with a lot of my posts the topics I discuss all kind of overlap. I have been pondering the questions of "Why is Christ important in my life? Why would anyone who is not a believer need to believe in Christ?" These questions come to my mind because of my current job/ministry. I work with students who may or may not believe in Jesus, and may or may not care about knowing him. If being a good person is what Christianity is all about; putting on a mask that says everything is alright, and I love Jesus and am a good person. If bettering ourselves is all Christianity is about, then the message of Christ is irrelevant. Then we can get to heaven by doing good works, and nothing else matters. Jesus is the key, because a relationship with him will transform us. It should transform us. Thinking about this has caused me to realize that I have spent too much time trying to become a better person and do everything on my own strength and understanding. I need to lean on Christ, to spend time with him in prayer, and reading his word so that I can know him better. If I can know his heart, and experience his love, then there is a relationship. In youth a few weeks ago we were discussing the truth of Christ's second coming, and how his coming again will/should affect our lives. Most youth said that it should affect our lives more, but that it really didn't a whole lot right now. We need to spend more time building a relationship with God. If we have a vibrant relationship with him, we will be excited that he'll come back right? I want to be ecstatic at thinking about Christ returning to the Earth. I want to have a relationship with him that is deep, rich, and enduring. A relationship that affects my life and changes me, changes the way that I live and the decisions I make. If busyness is what is hindering your relationship with Christ, you are losing out on the experience of his love and need to unbusy yourself and MAKE TIME for GOD. He sent Jesus to die to save us from our sins so we could be in relationship with him, what have we sacrificed to work at that relationship?
Glory and Praise to the Almighty!
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Learning and Growing.
Hey All,
So, I definitely am still not great at updating this regularly. I have 4 things I want to discuss today: Motivation, Integrity, Self-Control, and Discipline. They are all kind of similar, or at least they all seem to speak to my life similarly lately.
First off, Motivation. I am not a terribly motivated person. When I was in High School, I rarely did my homework, and didn't pay a lot of attention in class. When I was in College, I did most of my homework on time, but rarely started it more than a day before it was due. I paid more attention in class, when I was there, and not terribly drowsy from staying up late the night before. So motivation and I haven't been terribly great friends. I wish I were more motivated though, on things like: losing weight, eating healthy, memorizing scripture, reading scripture. There are a lot of things I would like to do more of, or put more effort into.
Secondly, Integrity. I have always wanted to be able to say that I am a man of integrity. What does this mean? What is integrity? How does one go about being a person of integrity? I think that for myself this currently means trying to be the same person no matter who I'm with, or where I am. I want to be able to be myself no matter where I am. Part of this is keeping my mind pure. There seems to be an epidemic in our culture that says that sexual innuendo is good, and that these jokes are the funniest kind of jokes. I like to make jokes, because I enjoy making people laugh. If doing this is causing me to have to be seeking out the sexual innuendo in the things that people say it causes my mind to constantly be in the gutter. Sexual innuendos are not the things I want to come to my mind first when somebody says something that could be taken inappropriately (for example, "That's what She Said" jokes..)
Thirdly, Self-Control. I have never been one to force my body to obey me. I used to be pretty lazy, but I've always found the energy to eat when I was hungry...even often when I was not. This one kind of goes along with Integrity. I want my mind to be pure. I also want to be able to have control of the things I say and the things I do. I want to be conscious of the decisions that I'm making and the effects that they are having on my life.
Lastly, Discipline. Which is kind of the same thing as self-control, but leaks over into other areas of life. Doing things even if I don't feel like doing them. This one has the most to do with my devotional life. I want to get in the habit of studying the scriptures and learning more and more about my creator, while developing my relationship with him. I want to love the things he loves, and hate the things he hates.
So, all of these things: Motivation, Integrity, Self-Control, and Discipline are things that I'm working on in my life. I don't know if I'll ever have them figured out. I don't know if I even need to have them all figured out. I am realizing though, that as I journey through life, I want to constantly be setting, reaching, re-evaluating and setting new goals. I never want to stop learning and growing. I want to be healthy: spiritually, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Through all of this, God is faithful!
All Glory and Thanks to God my Father!
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Playing at being a Grown-up
Good Evening,
As I was driving home from work today, I was reminiscing on the past few weeks/months. In the last while I have made a considerable effort to do things the way a mature, well-adjusted adult 23 year old male would. I sent all the paperwork in so that I could start paying off my student loans. I set up my online banking so that I can manage my finances well. I even designed for myself a budget spreadsheet that allows me to keep intricate details of where I want to be spending my money, and where I am actually spending it. All of this in hopes that I can keep myself more accountable of keeping track of my finances.
Out of this come two thoughts:
Thought number 1:
I am not great at organization, but I revel in the challenge that attempting to organize my life brings. I find it enjoyable spending time working on organizing my finances, my room, my schedule. If these things are organized, I feel as though everything is under control. My control. I realize that in this age of technology and social networking that one can be too connected. I realized today that I need to take a break from all of this at times. I need to be able to disconnect. The drive to be in control of my life, means that I want to be connected. To be able to check my credit card balance, phone bill, etc. all online, and pay them there as well. These things along with facebook, youtube, and email accounts means that I could spend hours online and hardly notice the time fly by until it is gone.
Encouragement/Challenge: So, I encourage you, if you're feeling stressed and life is getting too busy...maybe try taking a break from technology and being reachable everywhere you are. I'm going to try to do that this weekend I think.
Thought number 2:
Being 23, and recently graduated from college, I feel as though I need to have everything figured out. I see other people who are my age, married and seem to have things working out pretty well for them. Others may be well into setting up their careers. It seems to me that everywhere I look, there are people my age who dwarf me in their maturity and ability to handle responsibility. Maybe I just feel as though I don't want responsibility, or maybe it's that I don't think that I can handle it yet. I feel as though the past few years have been great in helping me to figure out who I am, and what I want out of life. At the same time, I think that they've taught me that I'll never completely figure it out, and that it's something we learn as we journey through life. Perhaps I need to take time more often to let God have control of my life, rather than grasping at any possible way that I can control it. Although, there's lots to be said for discipline, and organization, both which are weaknesses of mine that I am trying to work on (at times more successfully than others.)
Encouragement/Challenge: Perhaps life isn't just about having everything planned out to the last detail. Take a plunge, do something radically different from what you're used to. God is in control, perhaps we should ask his opinion on the things that we do a tad more often? And also, take time for yourself.
Relax. Unplug. (At least for a short time.)
As I was driving home from work today, I was reminiscing on the past few weeks/months. In the last while I have made a considerable effort to do things the way a mature, well-adjusted adult 23 year old male would. I sent all the paperwork in so that I could start paying off my student loans. I set up my online banking so that I can manage my finances well. I even designed for myself a budget spreadsheet that allows me to keep intricate details of where I want to be spending my money, and where I am actually spending it. All of this in hopes that I can keep myself more accountable of keeping track of my finances.
Out of this come two thoughts:
Thought number 1:
I am not great at organization, but I revel in the challenge that attempting to organize my life brings. I find it enjoyable spending time working on organizing my finances, my room, my schedule. If these things are organized, I feel as though everything is under control. My control. I realize that in this age of technology and social networking that one can be too connected. I realized today that I need to take a break from all of this at times. I need to be able to disconnect. The drive to be in control of my life, means that I want to be connected. To be able to check my credit card balance, phone bill, etc. all online, and pay them there as well. These things along with facebook, youtube, and email accounts means that I could spend hours online and hardly notice the time fly by until it is gone.
Encouragement/Challenge: So, I encourage you, if you're feeling stressed and life is getting too busy...maybe try taking a break from technology and being reachable everywhere you are. I'm going to try to do that this weekend I think.
Thought number 2:
Being 23, and recently graduated from college, I feel as though I need to have everything figured out. I see other people who are my age, married and seem to have things working out pretty well for them. Others may be well into setting up their careers. It seems to me that everywhere I look, there are people my age who dwarf me in their maturity and ability to handle responsibility. Maybe I just feel as though I don't want responsibility, or maybe it's that I don't think that I can handle it yet. I feel as though the past few years have been great in helping me to figure out who I am, and what I want out of life. At the same time, I think that they've taught me that I'll never completely figure it out, and that it's something we learn as we journey through life. Perhaps I need to take time more often to let God have control of my life, rather than grasping at any possible way that I can control it. Although, there's lots to be said for discipline, and organization, both which are weaknesses of mine that I am trying to work on (at times more successfully than others.)
Encouragement/Challenge: Perhaps life isn't just about having everything planned out to the last detail. Take a plunge, do something radically different from what you're used to. God is in control, perhaps we should ask his opinion on the things that we do a tad more often? And also, take time for yourself.
Relax. Unplug. (At least for a short time.)
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