Fear

What are you afraid of???

For me, my biggest fear is abandonment. Losing everything and everyone I have ever loved or cared about. Or even losing one person. This isn't due to death or a natural cause, but litterally having someone realize that they no longer want you or no longer want to be a part of your life so they leave you. They abandon you, like a little lost puppy in a box on the side of the road. Just left to your own devices when you needed them the most. That is my biggest fear. But this fear is irrational, and for lack of a better adjective stupid. Because I can never be truly abandoned, not when I have Christ. 

“Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” ~Mark 4:40  

So why am I so afraid of abandonment? Why is it that this is what plauges my nightmares? Not only do I have Christ who will never forsake me, but I also have amazing parents who love me unconditionally and this awesome (and sometimes annoying :p) sister, that I know will always be there. Yet, I still have this destructive fear? A fear that I am learning to control and tame and overcome because of the amazing love that Christ has for me, but also stemming from that love, the blessing he has given me in my family. 

But let me ask?? What are you afraid of? And is this something that can be overcome? Something that can be solved? The context of the aformentioned verse is that of Jesus speaking to his disciples after he has calmed a storm on the ocean. They are in the middle of a storm and about to be overtaken, and when they have finally tried everything on there own, they finally turn to Jesus and ask him to solve the problem. What kind of problems do you have in your life today, that you have tried to solve on your own 100's of times without success? A problem that, if you would just turn to God, he could take it and "calm the storm." If you have faith that he can overcome your personal storms for you, then why have fear? Why have fear of abandoment or whatever it is that you may fear. Because with Christ, you should not be overcome and overwhelmed by your fear, but be content that he has your fears under control and will not let them overcome or overwhelm you.  

*side note (Now I have never been in a storm on the ocean, but from the movies i've seen they look terrifying. They are huge, strong, and strangley beautiful. They appear to be untamable and uncontrolled. If God can control THAT with nothing but his words, what do you think he can do to the small comparably insignifgant things that occur in your life? If he can control the oceans and storms, don't you think he can control something like abandonment? And keep a fear like that from being something that you can't bear?) 

Joy!

"and NO ONE can take your joy from you!"    

 ~ John16:22

*No matter what happens as long as you center your self in Christ no one can take away your joy. Joy is a state of being, it is not a feeling that one has. Feelings are things such as happy or sad. You can be joyful yet have moments of sadness. Joy is a mindset and a state. The oppostie of joy is sorrow. Sorrow comes with not focusing your life on Christ and not letting him be the center of your life. As long as you keep Christ at the center and allow your joy to spawn from him, then no one can take that away. So if you are currently living in sorrow, then ask yourself, where do you find your joy? And what did you lose in order to have that taken away from you? If you lost your joy its because it was taken from you so that you may find true joy in Jesus Christ. Once you have found that joy in Christ, you can never lose it!

Coasting

Why is it that we tend to settle down and live simple mediocre lifestyles when we are meant for so much more? We have all the potential in the world to do anything we may set our mind too, yet most of the human population settles. As children everyone has these huge dreams of wanting to become an astronaut, a president, a proffesional athlete/olympian, a lawyer etc. But so few people actually become these things. So few people follow through with their dreams and goals because they get so caught up in life they forget to live it. So they settle for the mundane.

I recently had my eyes opened to the fact that I have spent the last year of my life just coasting through. Doing the bare minimum and not using my abilities and talents to their full potential. I was settling for normal, average, below par, or whatever other adjective you may want to use to describe it. I was doing this in every aspect of life: my schoolwork, my social life, reaching for my dreams, and using my abilities. I can do so much better, but why did I seemingly settle? Why settle for the insignificant? Why settle for C's instead of A's? Why settle for less than what I can actually acheive? Why did I allow myself to fall into the human pattern of getting so overwhelmed with life and all it entails that I forgot to actually live? I may never know the answer to that question; however, I do know that it will not happen again. I have the potential to become anyone or do anything I want. I have the ability to change the world. So instead of coasting through life and letting it pass me by I have every intention of living it.

So ask yourself the same question. What is it that you really want? Are you living up to your full potential, or are you settling? Are you so caught up with life that you are no longer living?