I pulled the following excerpt from my journal. It was from my first few weeks of college. I was homesick and miserable. I had just moved away from my family and was searching for life on my own.
“I feel so far from life…I’m so in between and it’s confusing…I’m too old to be a teenager, I miss those days, but I’m past that now. I’m too young to be an adult…I don’t know if it’s the fear of being on my own or what, but I’m not ready to handle these responsibilities. Questions, Questions, Questions…I wish I didn’t have so many. I feel like I was born for more, but right now I just feel far from that. I long for answers! Please give me patience to wait for for You to speak. I’m just afraid that I can’t wait. ‘Do not be afraid.’ I rejoice in my life. I am alive and I have great blessings. I know that You will sustain me. I thank you for a warm bed and shelter. ‘Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.'”
A Dose of Reality
That’s all of our journals at some point in time isn’t it?
It has taken me a while to really understand this, but life is a series of difficulties. As Andy Andrews says, “We’re either coming out of a crisis, in a crisis, or headed for a crisis.”
However, I laughed while I was re-reading my journal above, the part about being too young to be an adult and not handling responsibility well. I still feel that way twelve years later as a father to three kids, but I don’t allow myself to wallow in those thoughts.
And that, to me, is part of the maturation process.
When we learn to control what we think.
Waking Up
I have so many people who tell me that they’re not a morning person. I still haven’t figured out what a morning person is, but the point is this: there are no early birds or night owls. As human beings, we are incredibly resilient and we can train our bodies to do things that our minds are incapable of thinking.
When you live a life focused on yourself, I have found, that you tend to wake up based on your circumstances. If you’re going on a trip or have something fun planned, you pop right up. You’re so dang excited because the waking up is all about you.
On the flip side, if it’s another weekday, your lackluster attitude towards life keeps you a prisoner to your bed.
If you’re struggling and longing for something more in your life, I would ask you this question:
Are your thoughts keeping you captive to your current routine?
As a creature of habit, you have to take an audit of your life. What is working and what isn’t? Around here, we call that recognize you’re broken. You have to take an inventory of the broken things to have any hope at restoring them.
And for me, rising early and beginning my day with energy and passion has been the catalyst for living fully.
If you want to start living, stop waking up based on the circumstances.
Make the simple decision to rejoice in today and then, go create it.
I dare you to look yourself in the mirror when you wake up, muster up the biggest smile you can manage and say, “You were created for today.”
MH
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