Don’t press fast forward.

Photo cred: Zach Sumners

After passing many milestones in my life, the two most recent ones captured in the picture above – my 20^th birthday and more importantly, Rachel's graduation from high school, all in one crazy, blessed day – I have more than ever realized this important lesson: Don’t press the fast forward button on life.

Time goes by fast, we all know it. But this still doesn’t stop us from thinking and planning ahead, and wishing we were just a little bit older or even at the next stage of our lives.

The current stage we are in….whether that is studying in school, just out of school with our first “real” job, traveling the world, getting married, having our first child, working to advance our career, married and consumed with the lives of our children, empty nesters, retirement, or any other life stage that is a combination of these, in transition, or one I have not mentioned…always seems to be the “hardest stage.” We look to what is to come and think once we pass this current stage we are in, things will get just a little bit easier. But the truth is, the next stage doesn’t get easier, because every stage in our life comes with new challenges and hardships. Maybe we all know this truth, but this still doesn’t stop us from wanting to click the fast forward to the next stage of our lives.

Maybe we have also done the opposite, and wished we could go backwards in time and just be a child again. I know this has been my wish on many occasions. For others, it may be thinking back to our college years, or our first job, or when we were just younger and felt more adventurous and free.

With these two extremes, we can see that all of us quite often wish we were somewhere different in life due to knowing how it used to be, current circumstances being as they are, and predicting what the future holds.

Ecclesiastes 3 expresses that there is a time for everything….There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens. It is God who appoints a time for everything, and His timing is perfect. He arranges even the smallest details of our earthly surroundings, and because He cares about each and every one of us, He has destined and determined the activities and stages of our lives.

With this in mind, let us enjoy where we are at in our current life stage, even if it is hard. Let’s hold on tight and do the best we can, because it won’t be like this for long. Soon you will be moving onto the next adventure of life God has already planned for you. Most importantly, time goes by fast, and you don’t want to miss what God has in store for you at the present moment. Don’t press the fast forward button on life. 

Undercooked Brownies

A few weeks ago, I decided to bake some brownies to bring to a friend’s house. “This shouldn’t be too hard,” I thought. However, when they were out of the oven and just about cool, I started cutting into them to find the disappointing truth: I undercooked them. I guess I am not the greatest baker after all.

The funny thing about undercooked brownies is you don’t know they are undercooked until the moment you cut into them and the still gooey batter is revealed as it sticks to your cutting knife. Sure you can do the toothpick trick before you take them out of the oven to try and get a hint whether they are done or not (which I did by the way and still managed to undercook them), but you never truly know the full story until the moment you cut into them.

This may be a stretch, but I think this is true of people too – you can never really know the full truth about someone until you figuratively “cut into them.” So many times in life, we assume we know everything about a person without even talking to them. “That mom must want to pull her hair out taking care of those crazy kids every day,” we ponder. “Their job sounds amazing, they must be really well off.” Or we even go as far as to thinking something along the lines of, “at least we are better off than this person because they are struggling with ________ (fill in the blank, you get the idea). You see, comparing and assuming things about people can ultimately lead to us finding a way to prove we are better than someone else. It makes us feel better about ourselves without actually hurting anyone because we never say what we are thinking out loud. My pastor from my church has a three-step plan for humility, and one of them is “never presume.” If we want to work towards humility, we should hold back from assuming something to be true of someone else. We should stop assuming we know someone without “cutting into them”, without hearing the full story.

When I cut into my brownies just to find that they were underdone, it left me frustrated and even a little confused. “I worked too hard for imperfection,” I thought. “I followed all of the directions correctly and I still didn’t get the results I was hoping for.”

This too relates to us struggling with humility: we just want something to show to others so they can say, “you did a good job” or simply, “you are great.” We think if we follow the directions perfectly, everything should turn out, and then we will receive the praise we think we deserve. We know deep in our hearts this isn’t true, because life just isn’t that simple or perfect, but we still talk ourselves into thinking this way. But as we grow in Christ and strive to be more humble, the truth will soak in, the truth that states we don’t need perfect results or to receive praise from others to feel that we are doing something right.

2 Corinthians 3:1-6

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? ² You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. ³ You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

⁴ Such confidence we have through Christ before God. ⁵ Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. ⁶ He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

We are brave.

I want to highlight the word “are” in this sentence, I used it for a reason. I didn’t say – “We can be brave.” I said – “We are brave.” Courage is part of our character, for all of us, whether we know it or not.

If you think of it, braveness is just a series of decisions that we make every day that help us get to where we want to go, or even better, where we feel God leading us. Courage is not a feeling that we just gather up right before we need to do something scary or difficult, but rather, it is always in us, sometimes it just comes out more than other times.

We were brave and we still are brave. Bravery started from when we were a child, when we were discovering the world and trying things for the first time – going down the big slide at the park, riding a bike, climbing a tree, starting preschool and then elementary school, trying foods our parents made us try, etc. And bravery continues today because even as “adults” (“adults” meaning people like me who don’t feel quite like an adult yet, maybe a better word would be “young adults”), we try new things and we are still discovering the world around us even at this age. Many of us leave home to go to school or to get our first “real” job. We make decisions about our future, even if when we still don’t really know what we want to do. We make new friends, let other friends go, and try to stay afloat while the world seems to keep throwing at us new things and new decisions to be made. Real adults, you are still brave too. You finish school, maybe even go do more school. You may get married and have kids, and/or buy your first apartment or home. You continue to live life making decision after decision, and bravery is in the midst of all of that. And so is God. 

You see, God and bravery are connected. Many times in the Bible God tells us to, “be strong and courageous”, but I think this command can be applied to not only when we are making a hard decision or going far from home, but throughout every decision during our entire lives.

So whatever you are doing - whether close to home or far, whether it is the “norm” or not, whether with someone or solo - you are brave. 

Blessed.

How did I get so lucky?

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. – James 1:17

We are blessed people. God has blessed us with many good things. Sometimes it is hard to really understand how blessed we are during our day-to-day lives, especially when we are in not-so-good circumstances. But even during these hard times, He is there strengthening us (whether we remember this truth or not, He is there).

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. – Isaiah 41:10

I have had the opportunity to get out of my normal college routine in Minnesota and go study abroad not just for a few weeks, but for a few months. How did I get so lucky? This has given me the opportunity to come to know even more just how great God is, and how He is faithful in every circumstance. More often than not, I am feeling truly grateful for all of the blessings God has given me. He has blessed me with so many great opportunities to learn and to travel, forgiven me with His great mercy, and He pours on me His love and compassion every single day. He has surrounded me with people that love and support me both here and back home, and provided me with others to love and touch with His love throughout my life.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. – 1 Corinthians 13:13

These are simple truths and blessings that all of us in Christ are given – His love, grace and mercy. So how come we can’t thank Him for these blessings and the mountain of others every day? How come it takes something like a three month study abroad trip to truly realize how blessed I am?

I believe we can all breathe in these truths every day, but first we have to really feel it. We can find out more about these truths and blessings God has given us throughout Scripture. This sort of thankfulness should not be just a once a month or once of week sort of state, but it has to be an everyday sort of state. I also think that practicing thankfulness will lift our spirits, our hopes, and our attitudes when we are facing difficult circumstances in our lives. By thanking Him for all the blessings He has given you, you may be able to see His light and love for you peeking out from the darkness. We can breathe in His blessings every day, and breathe out with our thankfulness, and in response, bless others throughout our lives.

Details

The longer you stay in a place, the more you can discover about the place, the more you can uncover the details that make the place complete.

During my travels, I have realized that it is more memorable and more enjoyable at the moment to visit a site with the intention of actually seeing it and uncovering it, rather than visiting just to say you did or thinking about the next site you need to check off the list.

In my opinion, a relaxed way of traveling is not only more enjoyable, but it is also more beneficial because you can begin to learn more about the details of each site, whether that be the history, certain objects or pieces within the site, or even hidden parts or walking paths that you wouldn’t have found if you were just rushing from place to place.

Details are important, and we are often too rushed to notice them. We often don’t stay long enough in each place to uncover the details.

Discovering the details helps us to really enter into a place or circumstance. Entering in deeper, spending time with one another past the everyday conversations, is how we really bring out the best in our relationships. God created each and every one of us so carefully and intricately, and with so much detail that there will always be something new to discover about a person. By digging past the surface in our faith, we can uncover more about God and His character. The longer we can be patient and stay in a difficult situation instead of taking the first path out we can find, the better chance we have of finding a crack of light within the darkness.

Details are helpful and allow us to dig deeper, don’t forget to take time to notice them within every realm of your life.

Everyone has their own walk.

Everyone has their own journey, their own calling.

Even if you don’t know your calling, you know that you have one. God calls us all to do something during our lives. Some of us are called to go far, while others are called to stay close to home. Some of us are called to take on great leadership roles in the church or community, while others are called to simply be a helping hand to their neighbor.

Whatever your calling, you should cherish it because it comes from God. I think sometimes we get caught up in specifically what our calling is, instead of focusing on the One who gave it to us. We compare callings. We say since this person is doing that, we should be doing more. But God doesn’t want that either. We are to be happy and humble, and not to compare other people’s callings to our own.

In fact, in reality, we all have the same, “united calling”: To glorify God with our lives. However, we all do this differently. We all have our own walk. We all go different places, have different jobs, different families, different lifestyles, all of which we combine into our calling. Many of us feel called to do different things in the future, and we focus on that instead of what is happening in the present. The majority of the time, our focus is all off.

Shouldn’t we be more focused on our “united calling”, and especially on the One who gave it to us, instead of what we feel individually called to do now or in the future?

Let us work hard not to fulfill ourselves and our own calling, but to glorify Him with our good works.

This verse was the theme verse last week for my church’s sermon. It reminds us to set good goals, and to be living proof of God’s presence in our lives. It reminds us to not work during our lives just to improve ourselves, but to lift His name higher.

With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. – 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12

Go ahead….keep ruining other people’s lives

It is not until you really care for someone that you start to impact them in such a powerful way.

It is then that you start to ruin their life, surely but slowly.

What you do may make them sad, mad and annoyed

Or happy, excited and proud – maybe even all in one day.

They may choose to go the extra mile for you,

Or stand back to let you shine.

Without even knowing it, you are influencing their thoughts or actions,

And you just can’t help it.

This is how you can ruin their life.

It is good and bad all at the same time.

Their life would be totally different without you, to say the least.

Maybe they would have less pain, maybe it would be a little easier.

They would have more of this, or more of that,

But less of you.

If they had to choose, they would always choose to keep you. Because less you means less love.

So go ahead,

Keep ruining other people’s lives.

For God has called us to love one another just as He has loved us.

And what is love?

What is the greatest love?

There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. – John 15:13

Cherish your friends. Love them. And ruin their lives with your love.