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As for man, his days are like grass;
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more.
But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,
and his righteousness to children's children
Psalm 103:15-17 ESV
“At the same time, me turning 28 has come with a more acute feeling and awareness of aging – and with it comes concerns about my future. There is a funny kind of irony in being a therapist and espousing the need to not compare yourself with others and then find yourself doing just that: comparing yourself to others and thinking that, once again, you just don’t measure up.”
“There are communities of loving individuals out there and there’s also a chance that there is a community God is waiting for you to start right where you are. God is calling, not just for people to come to him but for us to go out and love as well, so that they might see and they might come to know.“
…I finally accepted the truth that, as life progresses, our community and how it interacts with our lives progresses too. I’ve always been a proponent of community but now I, with some hindsight, have realized that my interpretation of “community” may have been small and incomplete.
How often I forget that despite all of our perceived shortcomings and imperfections, insignificance, and ephemerality, that we have purpose and have been given worth by God. Perhaps there is still something beautiful yet to be made of this life that I’m living.
So I guess that brings us to the reality of why I quit my job. While all of my complaints may have had some validity, it was fundamentally a heart issue. I couldn’t do it anymore because I had lost my ability to love. I couldn’t love because I had forgotten that I am loved.
I cannot heal the heart or the soul and I can’t fix chemical imbalances in the brain. I can’t be the friend they need and I can’t be their community - and sometimes it makes me feel hopeless too. But what I cannot do, Christ can do - and sometimes that happens through others.
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
Psalm 51
“All I know is that somewhere in the turmoil of my spirit the presence of God remains and there is hope in the knowledge that He is holding on to me still.”
“A half committed Christian is the most miserable person on earth. He is just enough in the world to be miserable in the presence of God, and he's just enough into God to be miserable in the world." -Charles Spurgeon
There is an invitation to a home, to a career, and to a marriage. Then there is an invitation to feast. The feeling of satisfaction can come from many things, but only one can satisfy our hunger and thirst for eternity.
The Old Testament and the New is God’s account of who He is. Our own testimonies give an account of not ourselves, but of God too. And He’s not done with us. From the very beginning, to the very end, and everything in between, it is for God’s glory.
How do we become an adult? We're told what to do, how to live, what to feel, and what to aim for. But then, I think, when we're trying to tighten our grip on so many things, we miss the whole point. It's who God is that makes us who we are.
Our culture tells us to pursue the all the things we want in this life. But Scripture tells us there's only One that we need. And sometimes He gives so abundantly that causes us to forget we never needed all those things to begin with.
What if God allowed you to have that all the things that you’ve been waiting for? Would you take them, even if Christ and your relationship with Him had to take a back seat?
Every Christian, at one point or another, has questioned their faith or at the very least wondered why they were doing what they were doing. Come back to your first Love. He's the reason you started, and He's the reason to keep going.
"There have definitely been times in my life where I’ve had to fake my relationship with God in order to be 'active' and 'contributing' at church, and even to fit in amongst my friends. It’s not like I jumped ship and abandoned my faith, but there have been periods in my life where my relationship with God was, more or less, non-existent."
"...caring for someone and giving them genuine encouragement is not something you can fake into reality. We can’t fake friendships until we make them, nor can we fake love until it just happens."
The way we wake up can tell us a lot about ourselves. Do you wake up full of energy? Or do you wake up groggy and unmotivated? What does that say about your mornings?
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