Summer.
The sun had soaked my skin as I went on runs.
The keyboard had newly settled in my room and emitted sweet music.
The to do's were forgotten in moments of spontaneity - us sisters breaking into car ride dance parties, running into friends, sudden dress shopping, long nights of Netflix episodes, and doing life together.
I thought over the moments of happiness, utter confusion, and frustration.
I felt overwhelmed by both the progress and hardness of life's growing pains.
It's been a summer of learning.
A summer where I've realized that
there's a point when we have to set aside the big questions and live
it's more easily said than done
it all can look & feel so much different in the moment
in the real world, there are very rarely clean-cut answers
some things cannot be understood until experienced.
It's not been a summer of "I've learned" because I am not sure life really is that way. It's been a summer of "I'm learning" because life seems to be a learning journey, not a learning arrival.
I'm learning this about life:
Life is so often what we make of it.
On one hand, my summer was a summer of bummers.
Bummers that
I did not pour the time into much that really needed my attention
I was seriously selfish and created some family tension
I felt lonely again yet did little to change it
I let some opportunities slip
Life can so often be what we make of it, however.
What do we have in life if we refuse to make our focus on the One who made life?
What do we have in life if we refuse to receive grace, His grace?
He has grace for our selfishness, for our wasted moments, and for our outbursts of anger.
Truth is: He knows that we are going to fail, sees the frailness of our humanness, and yet has chosen to love us and call us His children, anyway.
In a culture born and raised on grace, we shouldn't lose sight of the power of it.
His grace is divine, coming from the Maker of the stars, the Author of the universe, the Lord above all lords.
His grace is this every time,
no matter how many times we fall into it.
So why not make that of life?
Make it full of falls into His grace, into His love, and into His truth instead of into our own confusion, condemnation, and anger?
What did He make of life?
He made a way for us.
He made us new.
He redeemed His people.
He gave purpose.
He lavished with joy.
He infused with hope.
What are we, then, going to make of what He has made for us?
For we are no exception.
Life for us, too, will so often be what we make of it.
So why not make it a time
to choose to see the good in situations and in people?
to choose to focus on the lessons we are learning instead of counting the mistakes we are making?
to fall into His grace and accept His love?
to realize that He has given his life in the making of ours, and to live to make much of our time: to throw ourselves into delighting in our savior and following His lead in each moment.
Life for us, too, will so often be what we make of it.
© 2014 Deborah Hope Shining
1 comments
True! God help me be that!
ReplyDeleteI definitely don't want this to be a monologue. What are your thoughts? Questions? Ideas?