I can honestly say that somedays life really does feel meaningful, real, promising and free. Then there are the days that feel heavy, long, tiring, and suffocating. The good news for me is that the days of real living, real loving, and real promise, tremendously out number the windy days of grey and nothingness.
Not sure how I got to be where I am. It wasnt by my power, although my pride wants to take all the credit. I am not sure how I made it out alive. Addiction had its grips on me. I suffocated for years. That is what addiction does to you - robs of all dignity, strips away the ability to love and have meaning. Chokes the life out of you and the life out of the people you love and who love you. Addiction blows the victim all over like a tornado and destroys every one and every thing in their path.
I am done chasing the wind. I am done living in the land of the walking dead. I am strapped down for the ride. I am not where I want to be, but thank God I am not where I use to be. I have been renewed.
Lent is here. Forty days of self reflection and taking stock. It is a time for doing good works for others.
It is a season in our lives for spiritual renwel, discipline, and self inventory. It is a time to add meaning and Godly behavior to our lives. Daily reading,praying, journaling, helping others, praying for others are suggestions for adding meaning and purpose during these 40 days. I love to get up early and have the time to think ,pray, and fill myself up with spiritual teachings and God's word. It is a time for transformation.
I heard something last night that got me really thinking on how we live our lives and what we place importance on. " Do you want to spend the rest of your life storing up money and things; do you want to work to exhaustion building up the ladder of success; do you want to store up money and things - or do you want a chance to save the world."
When we come to the end of our lives, those things that we thought were so important to own, to drive, to live in, to wear, and to cling on to will all end with our death. " What doesnt end is the impact that we have made on the lives of others."
I dont know about you, but I want to be an impact , not an accident. I am done suffocating. I have direction to my path now. Psalm 119:105 says" Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path." I can see where I am going now. I can have a chance to do something in this world.
Are you still chasing the wind? Are you or someone you love being robbed of dignity and self respect ? Are you in the grips of accumulating stuff, driven by the worlds view of success, storing up falses riches, and stumbling around in the dark ?
Commit yourself to a honest self inventory. Ask yourself "Where am I falling short God? How do I keep you number one in my life ? How do I even find you?
One day at a time. One request at a time. One answered pray at a time. He is there, every where all the time. He has never left...we may have left him.
Come Back.
