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)

I Love....

There are certain moments, and times in life, where I just smile and I say to myself "I love this moment in time!"

I love when my Grandma is napping in her room and I go and check on her, and she says "Come lay here, take a rest!" As I lay down staring at her as she sleeps, going over every line and wrinkle...I think, "If only I could go back and time and see all she has seen." I love it! Just sitting there for several minutes just going over her face, every little thing about it. Thinking about the people, the moments, she has encountered. I LOVE those moments.

I love when the homeless man from church comes up to my Dad and begins to share his dreams and passions. I love staring into his bright eyed face and seeing life beaming from someone who has hardly anything. I love seeing this man living for a cause, fighting for something greater than him. It amazes me. I love seeing this translucent beauty shine out of the very depth of his soul.... and in that moment I just stop and I wonder, "what has he seen? what is his story? what led him to where he is today?" In that moment I get a sense of truly being alive and truly being a beautiful person.

And, I love Hollywood... yes, I do. Not one bit ashamed of it either.
I love learning about actors, actresses, socialites...studying their lives.
Why take time for such silliness you ask? Because, I don't see them as these BIG, famous people who the world is obsessed with. I see them as people, like you and I, who have a HUGE world stage. I think, "wow, Jesus actually made them with a specific destiny and purpose that no one else on this planet can fulfill. He made them for this time. This hour." I cant write them off as meaningless because to the church what they do seems pointless and immoral. I want to know their stories, because they've had moments of disappointment, of hurt, of anger, bitterness...as we all have. I want to know what the deepest questions of their souls are. If they have the biggest stage in this world, I want to know their stories, I want to pray for them. I want to see their heart. Because, the heart of someone, it tells all. I want to see the one's the "church" calls dirty, impure, so lost. I want to see them as beauty, as obsessively loved by their Abba, as one's with this massive destiny just like me and everyone else, but one only they can fulfill. As truly, outrageously, beautiful people. So, in moments where I get this little glimpse of this "famous" person's heart... I love it. Because, I see beauty, I see destiny, and I have no doubt that my Abba is obsessed with each and ever one of them as He is with me. And, I have no doubt that my prayers move heaven. I have no doubt that these "famous" ones will one day know my Abba. I have no doubt that one day I am going to walk down Rodeo Drive and see massive revival, and miracles breaking out. Not by me, but by Hollywood's very inhabitants.
Why believe such an outrageous thing?
Because, my God's love is more outrageous then that dream of mine (which is essentially His dream!)
And, I believe I will see it happen.
'Cause He is Huge, and loves obsessively.
I love that He allows me to even be apart of loving them. I love that He allows me to pray for them, to get a little glimspe of the HUGE picture He gets to see of their lives.

And, that, my friends, makes me SMILE!
:-)

I simply, LOVE IT....the moments in time that change my whole world.

Peace. Love. Joy.

Wonderful Abba. Wonderful Joy. Wonderful Life.

You know what?
I really love people who REALLY see people.
Sometimes, you encounter people who go even beyond what we think about ourselves, and they see us for us.
It's like they see you at your full potential, just like Jesus sees you.
And, you know what?
I ABSOLUTELY love people like that.

That is how we were created to live.
To really treat people for who they really are,
instead of OUR pre-figured ideas about who they are that stem from our own insecurities.
I love it when I meet people who just see your heart, your life, as beautiful.
That is how my Abba sees my life.
And, I love it when I meet people who have encountered their Abba in such a way that they truly, without a spec of doubt, see you as He sees you.

I want to live like that.
I want to see the very full potential,
of every single individual I meet, I see, I encounter.

I truly believe that when you treat people as they truly are; remarkable.
That, in itself, can literally transform someones life.
When you believe in someone as who they were created to be,
it can even shatter their idea of what they think they are,
what they've been told by the world they are.
That is beautiful to me.

I love Jesus.
He is life.
He is joy.
He is justice.
He is love.
And, He is hope.

Ah, how I feel so privileged that He created me;
that He even invites me to take part in those crazy, amazing aspects of His heart.
Jeeez, it blows my mind. I can't even put it in to words.
He is just outrageously, phenomenal.
So beautiful.
Not cliche-ly beautiful.
But, literally the very essence of beauty.
Woah, it blows my mind.
It blows my mind, every SINGLE day.

I love Him.
I love His joy.
I love this life He has given me.

Live Life Alive.
See People As They Truly Are.
Like Really.
It will blow your mind.

Peace.Love.Joy.

Beauty.

What do you say beauty is?
Is it your own idea of beauty?
Or is it the culture's idea of beauty?
Have you ever even thought that deep about beauty?

These are all questions I've been pondering.
Questions I believe Jesus is asking me...
asking us, as a people...
what do we say beauty is?

Do we allow the culture around us to define it for us,
or do we allow Him to?
Have we gotten so caught up in the way the world around us thinks, that we've forgotten His perspective?

I don't know about you, but I certainly know that at times I forget to look at the world through His eyes.
The way He sees the world..
it's so different; so beautiful.
It's almost refreshing when we allow ourselves to see as He does.
It's real.
Something, we rarely get to experience anymore....realness.

I want to see as He does.
The beauty, the awe, the life all around me.
I want to see it.
I want to feel it.
I want to experience it.

I want to see people as He does.
See the amazing-ness of each individual.
Ahh, what an awesome experience,
to get that birds eye view of the world.

Peace.Love.Joy.

Beautiful People.

I know I always seem to end up talking about or mentioning the stories all around us.
So, sorry if I seem repetitive in writing this...
but, once again, I find myself constantly pondering people's lives; people's stories.

Recently, one of my neighboor's died, just of old age. He lives right accross the street from me, and I will have to say in all the years I have lived in this house, which is about 13 years, I have never once talked to the man.
He is gone now....
and, I find myself saddened,
because I know nothing about him.
I have seen him on several occassions,
mowing his lawn, weeding, washing his car... you know the daily things.
But, never once did I have a conversation with him.
Never once did I ask him how he was doing.
Never once did I simply say hello.
I never got to know the man's story.

I would like to say there is some brilliant excuse for this,
but there isn't.
I just didn't stop and take time to talk to him.
And, I most certainly missed out because of it.

I wonder, now that he is gone...
what was his childhood like?
What huge momentous events happened to him that shaped who he became?
What was he passionate about deep down inside?
What made his heart skip beats?
Ultimately, what was his story?

I bet you he had an amazing story.
I bet you he was truly a beautiful person.
And, I betcha that I could have learned and benefited so much from getting to know him.

I don't want this to happen again.
I don't want incredible stories to walk out of my life without me ever even trying to hear them.
To think, everyday there are so many stories all around me, and I didn't even get to know my own nieghbor's story...it's sad.

I want to know stories.
But, really I want to know beautiful people.
People who are so alive on the inside.
People who literally breathe in and out His DNA.

I think everyone was created to be a beautiful person.
I think we allow events of our journeys to overshadow that beauty,
and dictate our lives.
We were all created to be beautiful people.
Live like you know who your Abba is.
Let it so affect the very fiber of your being...
that, that right there is true beauty.

The only true way to see the very beauty on the inside of people,
sometimes so deep down...you would never think it was in there,
is to simply listen.
Listen to their failures, their hurts, their successes, their joys, their passions...their heart.
That's when we come to truly see the beauty on the inside of someone.

So, once again, or more like for the hundredth time; I encourage you to take time and listen to the many, amazing, beautiful stories surrounding you daily.

I will guarantee that it will change your life.

Peace.Love.Joy.