A Life Twice Lived is a Life Wasted.

As we grow older there is constant pressure and advice from everyone, even those you don't know, as to what you should do with your life. These inhibitions also come from ourselves a lot of times. We experience something one way and really step off the trodden path to try something different.

A common phrase that people like to use is, "Don't burn all your bridges." so if something happens you will have something to fall back on, but I recently had a musician who gave me this advice, "Burn all your bridges," it will force you to strive for what you want and become what you want to become without the inhibitions and a chance to give up.

Recently I have felt the desire to step from the pavement to the gravel road and try things a different way. Stretch my limits and comfort zone.

If you're feeling frightened about what comes next, don't be. Embrace the uncertainty. Allow it to lead you places. Be brave as it challenges you to exercise both your heart and your mind as you create your own path towards happiness, don't waste time with regret. Spin wildly into your next action. Enjoy the present, each moment, as it comes; because you'll never get another one quite like it.

Anias Nin once said, "Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death." To give up is to die in your pursuit of who you truly are.

A life twice lived is a life wasted.

Chasing the Wind

There are times in life when we pursue things we want. We get caught up in them only to be shot down. Once we are shot down we get right back up, wounded, and continue to chase what we want. With every shot it becomes more painful to chase after the wind. I refer to the chasing as the wind because I don't know if it can ever be grasped. We take shot after shot and i wonder how long it is until we don't get back up. The only thing I have to trust in is God. He is all I need. Trust that my chasing is not in vein, it will lead me somewhere.

A man name Longfellow once said, "Perseverance is a great element of success. If only you knock long enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody."

Blown Away

We are floating as wisps in the wind
Searching for anything
Blowing as blades of grass and flowers do

We leave of home in hope of something new
Then those warm winds of change bring us back home
Right where we began, right where we belong.

Left With Alibis and Lying Eyes

It poured harder than it had ever poured before. The storm was unbearable. The long black locks of his curly hair were dripping wet and were no longer curly. His skin had the growth of a week on it turning his normally beautiful skin into patchy garden through which the tears fell. His head lay in a puddle on his pillow. His body curled up and shaking. In his hands he held clenching a jewel worth the world to him.

He had been so tough his whole life. He was massive, toning his body everyday. He had experience the pain of tattoos covering his back and biceps. He had even experienced the emotional pain of loosing friends to car crashes, drug, and the military.

When they met he thought she was perfect. The complexion of her skin as smooth as silk was perfect, not too pale, but not too dark. Her hair was the color of the sands and the beach and it hung loosely in front of her face cover one of her eyes until he hand brushed it away revealing a pair of eyes as blue as brightest oceans rimmed in the darkest regions of space. Upon her nose were sprinkled the lightest of freckles that seemed they would fly off if she sneezed. The smile on her face was like a knife slashing at his heart. As she sat there reading she bit her lower lip while still always maintaining that breathtaking smile.

Their love was perfect in every way. They were the true Romeo and Juliets of society. They were always abounding in love for each other; doing everything they could to have the best for the other.

This was his first night without her. He lay there questioning God, why? He didn’t know if he would make it through the night. He prayed prayers of anger and of questions. The life of his soul had been taken.

Deer in the Headlights

I was recently talking with a friends of mine who is on a mission trip in New Orleans and he was telling me how he felt so unmotivated because of the sheer fact there is so much work to be done and he doesn't know where to start.

Sometimes we have the best intentions of doing things but we stand there like a deer in the headlights, not knowing what to do so we get hit and unmotivated and never start.

Right now, as this is being read, a child has died from malnutrition, someone was murdered, raped, a child was abused mentally, physically, and sexually, girls are sold as sex slaves, HIV killed another victim, a child's life is torn apart by divorce, the pornography industry continues to make its billions of dollars, millions on child pornography and violating women in ways that disgust me to think about, a mother throws away her baby as if it is trash, people are tortured and brutally killed for their beliefs.

This is a disturbing thing to think but it is all real. I sit here using wireless Internet on a $2500 laptop while the world around me is in such need. One billion people on earth live on or less than $1 per day while we can work and make $6 per hour for flipping burgers. Where are we to draw the line at living a happy and full life and becoming victims of a massive consumer society?

To look at these problems seems overwhelming and too big to tackle, and if we do nothing then they won't be tackled. If we just stopped staring into the headlights and moved into action we could make the world a better place. If we band together to make this world a better place and stop giving thousands of our dollars a year to the consumer society and give them to people who actually need them we could transform the world.

The problems are all over the world, even in the utopia we call America. I hope it disgusts you when you go over the list of problems I presented and makes you cringe when you think of those things happening to little innocent children. For a small sacrifice of our personal paradise we can help others around the world to know what it is to be loved and have someone reach out to them as they lay naked in the dirty streets and help give them something they have never had, love.

Bread for the World is a very good organization that you should check out and pray about supporting.

Luke 23:27

This has been on my mind and Spurgeon said it for me years ago.

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/spurgeon/morneve.d0409am.html

One little girl...

Today before church started I was asked to help serve communion and the offering. So when the time can I went to my respective spot and started passing the plates down the aisle. It didn't take me long to realize this one very special person who was sitting on the end of the row that was close to me.

She was the most beautiful little girl I have ever seen. Maybe around 5 or 6 years old. She had a face that shone like sunshine. She just looked up at me with the cutest grin that just made my heart melt. I couldn't help but laugh a little bit and smile back at her with a big smile. She was all dressed up for Easter with her little dress and hat on, she was adorable.

Seeing her and just smiling at her made me remember my days of working with toddlers and how precious they are. How innocent they are. They are a reflection of God. So cute and wonderful. So delicate.

I have always wanted a little girl, but after today I want one of my children to be a girl even more. The bad part will probably be that I will spoil her more than I should, a daddy's girl ha ha.