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.