Sometimes the best way to help people is to do nothing at all. Pray for them and accept them and be there for them when they need you, but pull away. I'm learning, onerously, the value of knowing when to push and when to let go. Now's a time to let go. There are times when people have to learn to help themselves and to fly on their own, no matter how much I want to interfere and help. They'll never learn if I'm always handicapping them by intervening and not letting them grow. Of course, it takes quite a bit of prayer on my part because I'm simply a compassionate person who doesn't like to watch people (especially my friends) hurting, but I just need to learn to wait it out and see how they grow from their experience. A friendship can grow tremendously as two people grow individually. We have an obligation to be the best we can be, not just for ourselves or for God, but for those around us as well. Our shortcomings effect more than just our own life.
So, in those moments when you feel like you need to push or you need to interfere with your closest friend or the one you love, step back and check your timing. Maybe what they need is to grow up a little on their own before your friendship can mature. True love for another is when you can come to the point where you can give them what they need despite how it makes you feel.
You know how when you're young, the
world can be anything you want it to be? It can be flat, it can be
your gateway to fantasy lands or it can simply be a constant reminder
that gravity can seriously hurt. I've just been wondering...at what
point do we forget those things? The simple things. The things we
love. Everyone has something they wanted more than anything when they
were kids and many people manage to hold on to that for a long time,
some people even get what they wanted, but most leave it behind.
More often than that people are decimated by life and its persistence
on turning us all into servants of its continuous cycle. We all make
our mistakes and pay our dues, but why can't we get past them?
Ask
yourself this question. When did it become my objective to trip over
ground that I've already covered? I'm talking to Christians here.
You've been forgiven! And forgiveness, I might add, is not something
to take lightly, because anyone who's lived knows that in life,
forgiveness is hard to come by. Doesn't that make you glad God isn't
stubborn or unloving like we are?
To those of you who aren't Christians.
Mistakes aren't made to dwell on, they're made to learn from. Life
is too short to miss the beautiful wonders God has laid out for you
just because you want to beat yourself up over things you can't
change. As a line from one of my favorite movies says, “We are
intrepid, we carry on.” I encourage you, get to know who God is.
He loves you more than you could begin to imagine.
So, now I
come to this. What is it that you want more than anything? What
have you wanted ever since you picked up that stick as a kid and set
out to conquer the world? You see, human beings spend too much of
their time trying to impress people with jobs they never wanted or
plans that life made for them instead of ones that they made for
life. I implore you, think about it. Who have you become? Do you
like who you see when you look at yourself? Is this what God wants
for you?
This is a topic I've been thinking
about for a while now. All I wanted and loved when I was younger was
music. All I wanted to do was to write and play and travel.
Somewhere along the way I lost sight of that; amazingly with guitar
still in hand. I got lost, and music and I became strangers instead
of friends.
I know God has something for me and my
future plans for music, or should I say His future plans for His
music. This time I'm not giving up. Perseverance
I'm a little late on my blog for this week, but better late than never right? Well...I hope that's the case anyway. This past week has been a really busy one and I've really been feeling the pressure. Despite that, I have a peace. I'm starting to realize that you're not always going to be happy, and that's ok. Sometimes you just have to get through the tough moments and learn to smile through it. I've got a lot going on in my life right now, but I'm learning that it's best to just praise God anyway. The trust factor has really gone up for me as well, not only in my relationship with God, but also in my relationships with other people. I finally feel like I'm becoming that man that I lost a few years ago. The best thing about it is, I've learned and grown so much in the process that all of the things I used to do I know to avoid doing and I most importantly I know how to avoid becoming an emotional train wreck like I have been the past couple of years. I guess I could sum it up like this...I'm excited about how much I've progressed because it really feels tremendous to me. Ultimately though, I feel strength in my relationship with Christ and that brings me the most joy.
The past few weeks I've been posting songs to my blog that have inspired me throughout the week or that I have just really enjoyed listening to and I'm going to continue sharing those with you guys because it fits me...and my blog. Hope you enjoy.
God's been showing me the growth in my
life. Through various circumstances I've seen that I've learned to
guard my heart and I've begun to have better self-control in my anger
(even though I've still got a lot of work to do with that.) Most of
all, God's been telling me that I've been handicapping myself by
caring so much about what others think. To a degree, you have to
care what others think if you want to be in ministry because you're
supposed to care in general, but I've learned that I can't let other
people dictate how I live my life. God is the only one who will
determine the steps that I take and He's the only one who will judge
the life I live. I have to go to Him before I go to others and I
have to go to Him if I want to be better. I'm never going to be able
to write worship music again if I don't trust in God and let him move
me into His presence so I can do so. There are so many things that
require Him in my life and I don't have time to let other people take
the place of His love.
After this past weekend at Winterfest I was inspired musically by two artists. Phil Wickham and the band United Pursuit. Phil lead thousands in worship all by himself and it was incredible to see the anointing on his life during worship. Untied Pursuit had the most unique approach to worship and a beautiful sound to accompany it. It gave me hope for worship music and it also shook me. God was telling me that if I wanted to do this thing then I needed to stop waiting around for something to happen and just do it. So, that's what I'm going to do.
