now's the time

It is a strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills... we must use time creatively, and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right. [MLKJr] I stumbled across this quote this week while I was reading Dr. King's 'Letter from a Birmingham Jail'. [which, by the way, is an amazing piece of writing] That whole speech really drove me to think about something that I often do. Many times there will be something that I want to say or do but don't feel like it's the right time so I put it off to wait for the 'perfect' moment to come along. While this isn't always the wrong thing to do [sometimes it's not the right time to bring something up], a lot of times I miss the opportunities that may not ever come again. It's all about the mindset we have. When I read that quote from Dr. King, I realized that the wrong mindset to have is the mindset that time itself will heal or repair all the wrongs that we see around us. Sure, sometimes healing takes time, but often, if we would simply have the faith to take the first step, it wouldn't take as long. It's not the time that heals, it's the actions we, other people involved, or God take that does. We're faced with a choice: step out and decide to change, or wait around for a better time to come and miss opportunities that we have staring us in the face. From personal experience, I know that one of the primary things [if not the thing] that can stop me from this is fear. Fear can be paralyzing to doing exactly what you know you should say or what you should do. It's hardest when you know that what you're about to do or say could change the way things are for a long time. [decisions about future, for example] Instead of waiting for perfect opportunities, we should seize the common ones we have and make them great. I love the quote by Stephen Levine, "If you were going to die soon and you had one phone call to make, who would you call, and why are you waiting?" Sooo my point is: we can't think that time will cure everything that we want to be cured, only we can do that by having the faith to take the actions we know we should.

[his will is better]

Because Your unfailing love is better than life itself, I will praise You. [Psalm 63:3] I've been thinking a lot about how much God loves me. Seems kind of taken for granted sometimes, right? That verse in Psalms really stood out to me this week. Lately, there's been stuff that God has been asking me to trust Him in and not take into my own hands. When I read that verse it was like God was saying that His love is better than my dreams, my aspirations, my desires, and everything this life could possibly offer. After giving up His life for me, after all He's done for me, all He's asking me to do is just trust Him. To me that's a great deal, to Him it's so little. It put it in perspective for me because of the contrast. His death - what I want. Jesus gave up so much for me. Sometimes it's so hard to give up that stuff because we, as humans, can't see the end results. [as much as we want to, we can't!] I once read somewhere that the only effective enemy to God's plan for our lives is... us. I know it'll be worth it in the end because God is, well, God! Often when God asks us to give up something, He's going to fill that with something else that is amazing [usually Him]. He may be just waiting for us to give that one situation with a friend, one dream, one desire for us to be able to soar about what we thought possible. His will is always better than our's is. Always.

Love will protect.

Love always hopes.

Love still believes when you don't.

Love is the arms that are holding you,

Love never fails you.

When my heart won't make a sound,

when I can't turn back around,

when the sky is falling down,

nothing is greater than this.

love. <3

[love never fails]

p.s. I hope this post wasn't confusing to you guys! Tried to explain it clearly but... it may have not made sense. ;)

[twenty eleven]

We had just done the countdown to the new year. I sat there and thought about the year that had just gone by [really fast]. What stood out to me the most were all the things that had gone wrong that year. The things that I would have changed if I could, the things that I really didn't want to see happening, the things that I didn't see as good. I thought about how awful 2010 had been when, in reality, that year had been a year that I'd grown more than I have in a long time. I realized that, while it had been a really hard year, while a lot of things hadn't gone the right way, so much good had happened too. So easily I forgot how much God had shown me this year, how many amazing things I did this year with family and friends, and how much those difficult situations had taught me. I want this year to be different, but I think that I'm going into it with a different mindset now. Instead of the [sigh] 'I hope this will be better than last year' mindset, I want to have the mindset of 'I hope that this year will be just as good as last year was.' Even though trials are hard, and even though everything won't go the way it should, I've seen from looking back on 2010 that the hard stuff makes you grow... therefore we should be the most thankful for it because it's all in God's plan.