Looking beyond ourselves.

Recently, I've been training to run a half marathon (not because I enjoy running the slightest bit, but simply because it's on my bucket list & I wish to accomplish it :)
I played soccer, even traveled on a legit club for awhile, I played basketball, and I swam majorly competitively for a bit of time.....but I have always hated running. So this training, this running miles upon miles, it's not something I get "excited" about. But, I know my goal is to run that half marathon, so I run.

I've come to realize something though.
While I am running, and every time the miles get more, it's longer, more strenuous; I might get tired. Maybe I get a cramp in my leg. Maybe I just get bored, and ask "why the heck am I doing this?" Maybe, I think, "hmm....it's been a long day, I could be cuddled up in my bed with a good book." Every time I wonder and begin thinking about just stopping, going to just relax; I think if I focus on my cramp, or the fact I would rather be reading, or of the millions of other things I could be getting done, I DO just want to quit.
BUT,
when I take my mind off that cramp, and I focus on the goal, which is to ultimately complete those 13.1 miles then I am determined, I am prepared. Why? Because, I find meaning in what I am doing. I look beyond my pain, and focus on the goal.

I had a season in my life that was extremely hard, and I began isolating myself for awhile, and out of that isolation came a lot of social anxiety. I remember sitting with my sister, and I just began telling her how I hate feeling so anxious in social settings, and I wish I could just stop. She told me, "Brianna, I think it's the devil coming against your calling. You want to help people, you want to love people, but if you're so caught up in thinking about your self (aka the anxiety) then you can't see those around you, and you can't even begin to help them." It hit me so hard, because it's so true. I was so focused on me, me, me; how I was feeling etc, that I couldn't even begin to make an impact around me.

The point is this guys,
we must learn to see beyond ourselves, our hurts, our circumstances.
Because, when we do, this whole new world is opened up to us.
People who desperately need us and if we are too caught up in ourselves, our issues they will never come to know truth. They will never know that there is a God who is obsessed with them. Who loves them violently.

I encourage you to look beyond you,
and begin to look at those all around you.
Love on them, change their lives, let them experience Your amazing joy, the essence of your life; Jesus.

Peace.Love.Joy.

DOCHAS. (Hope in Gaelic)

"Hope means to keep living amid desperation
and to keep humming
in the darkness. ... See More
Hoping is knowing that there is love,
it is trust in tomorrow
it is falling asleep
and waking again
when the sun rises.
In the midst of a gale at sea,
it is to discover land.
In the eyes of another
It is to see that he understands you.

....

As long as there is still hope
There will also be prayer.

....

And God will be holding you
in his hands.

This seriously kills me every time I read it.
It screams truth.
I love it.

Truly in the midst of suffering there is a God worth worshiping (using some of the brilliant Jason Upton's words).

I think....that is the hope.
That no matter what HE is always there.

Someone recently was talking to me about a hard situation I went through a bit ago, they asked "did it cause you to doubt your faith; what you believe?"
My answer simply was NO.
HE never stopped loving on me.
HE never stopped listening.
HE never ONCE stopped caring.

To me, that is the HOPE; that HE is always going to be there.
No matter what happened to you or what is going to happen in your lifetime,
because we all know life ain't no pain-free journey.
It's hard. It's life.
But, there is hope.
HE is hope.

Whoa.
Amazing.

Peace.Love.Joy.

H.O.P.E.

H.O.P.E.

You know, I've come to find out- there is always hope.
Maybe only a speck at times, but it's always there.
I think we have a choice to hold onto that speck or,
pretend as if it doesn't exist.

To me, this can only be concluded by saying that my beautiful Abba is the very essence of this thing we call Hope.

Therefore, since He is the very reason this world spins, the very reason we even have the opportunity to breathe....that hope will always be available for us.

It's a choice.
Will you hold on, even to the mere speck of it,
or walk away pretending as if it were never there for the taking.

Your choice my friends.

Peace. Love. Joy.

"The choice between despair or hope. To be in despair is to deny that tragedy is tragedy. To be in despair is to disbelieve in the tragic and redefine it as acceptable, immutable, unchangeable. To hope is to call injustices and corruptions exactly what they are: tragic. Against all odds, against all that we know about this world, we could choose to hope for a better one -- to hope for love, for peace, for a form of contentment and solace that we have never fully realized. We choose to speak these worlds into being." (Jon Foreman)