life beyond the well…

Tag Archives: Life


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Life Matters.

I read a few blogs each day.  It helps to satisfy my hunger for reading, despite the lack of time that I have to actually read books other than the Bible and what I’m reading for my classes.  I find it to be a nice stress reliever; and for some blogs that I have been reading for years, I almost feel like I know the author.

I guess I kinda do know the authors.  After years of reading about their successes, their struggles, their faith, their loves, their losses, their joy, their pain…I kinda do know them.  And even though I only “know” them through what they write, that doesn’t change the fact that I feel connected to them; that their words and their thoughts have moved me to pray, to change, to seek, to love, to grow.

So, my heart has been heavy over the past week or so because two of the bloggers that I read regularly have both lost their sisters.  They aren’t related, but the stories of their losses are very similar.  And because I feel like I “know” them, my heart aches for them.

As I’ve read their blogs through this difficult time, what resonates to me is that life matters.  All of it matters.  All the time. And it matters that much more because we don’t know how much time we have left.

So much of life is spent focused on things that don’t matter: pleasing people we don’t really care about, acquiring things that we will only leave behind, worried about things that are really of very little significance.  I’m so guilty of it.  I’ve wasted so much of my life focused on the wrong things that don’t really matter.  My life matters.  How I spend my time matters.  Choosing to value people over things matters.  Looking for the opportunity to always do right by others matters.  Seeking each opportunity to make a memory instead of an excuse matters.  Taking every chance possible to leave each person, place, and thing that I encounter better than I found it matters.  Loving people beyond their faults matters.  Forgiveness matters.  Investing in my family matters.  Leaving a legacy of faith and love matters.  Life matters.

While I am praying for my dear blog friends, I am also praying that God “teach us to number our days” so that we can fully understand and execute wisdom in life through acting in grace, humility, love and faith.

Life matters.  Live wisely.  Love freely.

Be encouraged!


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Painfully Blossom

“There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anais Nin

I think that I’ve said here before that I don’t like change.  It’s not that I hate it, but once I establish a routine that really works, it becomes difficult for me to embrace ANYTHING that throws off my routine.  If I’m at work and I’ve decided that I’m going to go to lunch at 1:00pm, anything that comes up after about 12:45pm that could potentially throw off my plans is really difficult for me to handle.  I generally follow the same routine to get dressed in the morning and I take the same path to work each day.  When I go to restaurants, I typically order the same meal.  I can be a creature of habit and routine.

It would be great if life would cater to me and my lack of desire to change.  Oh how wonderful that could be.  But it could also be boring, painful, and growth-stunting.

While there are times in our life where we are able to change before the situation necessitates it, those times are few.  As much as we’d all like to believe that we are flexible, I think that if we are honest with ourselves, we can admit that change makes us uncomfortable. And, I think that we can also admit that some of the times where we were truly moved to change was because of pain.  Sometimes it was pain that was our fault, sometimes it was pain inflicted on us by others.  Regardless of the root of the pain, it facilitated a change needed in our lives to help us grow and blossom into who we are now.

There’s also a pain that comes through growth.  This pain may or may not be facilitated or inflicted by ourselves or others.  It’s just that as we continue to move towards who we are called to be, it necessitates that we change. And there’s a point where we have to ask ourselves- would I rather endure the pain of NOT CHANGING and live my life in the comfort zone, or would I rather embrace the pain that comes with change and push myself into the growth zone?

I love the quote that at the beginning because it reminds me that while the change and risk may be painful, it is nothing compared to the pain that may come from refusing to change.  And this isn’t just physical pain.  There’s the pain that comes with knowing that you missed opportunities for growth or success because of a refusal to step outside of your comfort zone.  More than anything, Lord, help us to stay out of our own way.  

That’s really what it comes down to.  When we neglect to change, we’re really standing in our own way of what has been promised to us.  My prayer is that our faith and level of expectation be increased so that we will be willing to do what God asks of us to bring forth the results He desires from us.  It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.

Be encouraged.  Be faithful.  Be fearless.  Be changed.