Faith: We are Never Alone

For a while, things in my life have been going great, which makes me very happy, for obvious reasons, but it seems as though God hasn't been as close as He is during the tough times.  I've prayed, and I've read my Bible, but no matter what I did, I just couldn't find that calming reassurance that has pulled me out of the worst times in my life.  I began to get worried.  I couldn't let this separation happen, just because there aren't many challenges in my life at this moment.

I didn't want bad things to start happening, but I wanted to feel God again,  I didn't want this slow drift apart.  Then, today, Never Alone by Barlow Girl came on when I was listening to music.  At first thought, it seems like it's meant to help during the low points in our life, times when everything seems to be going wrong, when no matter what we do, we are constantly falling down.  Then I thought, no, I can connect to this, even though I've had very little to overcome recently.



It has always been fairly easy for me to have Faith in God, because there have been very few moments when I haven't felt Him, so this has been an extremely odd experience for me.  But, of course, God is still there, and that's what Faith is, isn't it?  Hebrews 11:1 says "Faith is confidence in what we hope for, and assurance in what we do not see."

I'm beginning to learn that having a strong Faith has very little to do with how we respond when we can feel God's presence, but how we respond when we cannot.  Deuteronomy 31:6 says "Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you."  God will never leave us alone.  Never.  Not when we're furious and screaming at Him, not when we've locked ourselves in our bedrooms crying, not when we're filled with nothing but joy.

Our Faith can be tested at any time, not just in our struggles, as I believed until just recently.  So even when it seems as though God has abandoned us, we must trust that He is still with us, still walking through life with us.  When we believe otherwise, we are believing lies.

Slowing Down From 60

"I'm in a hurry to get things done, oh I, rush and rush until life's no fun, all I really gotta do is live and die, but I'm in a hurry and don't know why."

Being sixteen has made me think a lot about when I was little, because when I was little I had a lot of thoughts and imaginings that began with "When I'm sixteen I'll..." And very few of those statements have been found true, thus far. So much of my life has been spent fantasizing about the future. I'll be married at age twenty five, the mother of two by age thirty, maybe three by thirty five. And don't even get me started on college, I just want to skip through those four unpredictable and unknown years.

So wait, hold on a second. Isn't sixteen years old a pretty big year? So why am I constantly thinking about the future, constantly wishing my life away? What's the point in doing anything, if you only think about what you'll be doing years from now? It's time to take a breather and think about what I can do now. Who I can help, what new things I can try, who I'll meet, what effect I'll have on people's lives, how I deal with responsibilities.

I have to slow down, maybe even stop, and learn to live in the moment. 'Cause it's like the song says, at the end of this all, we are all going to die. It's true. Each and every one of us is going to die, and my hope is that the majority of us will end up in Heaven and eternal life with our Creator. But what about this years that we're given on Earth? I know that I don't want to spend my entire life just waiting to die. I want to have an effect on people here and now, I want to do great things right at this moment. I don't want to wait until I'm older, wiser, and more experienced. I want to make an impact right now. I want to enjoy these years, not wish them away.

I don't know about you, but right now I'm traveling sixty miles per hour down the most beautiful dirt road you'll ever find, and I need to slow down to see everything that I'm missing.

Watching the Footprints

A friend and I were talking earlier tonight about tough times that each of us has been through in our lives. We didn't leave it at that, though, because that's not where the story ended. We each made it through everything thrown in our path, eventually, and we've each become better because of the trials.

Last year on Youth Sunday at Church I shared my story of what I refer to as "hell year", a shorter version of the story can be found in my post from April first, 2011 titled "Perfection". God brought me through everything, even when I spent hours screaming at Him, for what, I do not know. I fell apart last year, and it is only now that I look back on it in it's entirety, brokenness, healing, and all, that I realize how amazing God's grace is.

At the time, I thought it would never end. I thought that I would be stuck in that rut forever, but look at me now, I've made it through! Often times I hear the quote "If God brings you to it, He'll bring you through it" and though it's easy to believe in times of inner peace, it can appear questionable during times of turmoil. Perspective can be hard to gain. Now, if you know me, you probably know that I'm usually rather optimistic, often times irritatingly so, but there have still been times when all I wanted to do was throw my hands in the air and give up. Heck, there have been times when I actually have thrown my hands in the air and given up.

But that doesn't mean that God did. He was always right beside me, He still is always right there, even when I don't see it. And now, with around a years worth of hindsight I can see exactly where God was last year. I can see where He was working to get into my thick head, where I fought against Him, and where I gave in to Him. I can see that the single pair of footsteps in the sand belong not to me, but to God.

Lord of the Dance

When we began to sing this song in the service at my church on Sunday morning my mind was focused on the idea of worship, because that was the focus of the youth service the same morning, and I was trying to figure out how this was worship. It seemed like a call to action to me, a call to worship in a way other than song.

It's a call to dance for our Lord. Does that mean literally dance? No, well, not always, though it certainly can, but rather, glorify God in everything you do, and do it with a cheerful heart. To follow the choreography that He has created for us, because "[He'll] lead [us] all wherever [we] may be". We have to do nothing but dance, awaiting to be led, and follow when we are.

"It's hard to dance with the devil on your back"-this line struck me so much that I wrote it on a scrap of paper during the service. When I think of what this is trying to say, my initial thought is that it's difficult to accept God's forgiveness when you can't manage to forgive yourself, but then with a second thought my mind went to what might be the obvious for most. It's difficult to follow God when you're already leading a life of sin. When you aren't willing to leave the path that you're on and follow God on His, and you falter in between, you end up very, very lost. Everyone strays from the path, but the important part is that you find your way back afterwards.

"I danced for the fishermen, for James and John; They came to me, and the dance went on"-this part goes right along with the one above. The fishermen were willing to drop their nets, drop what they were doing, and follow Jesus. Maybe God is calling you to do something as extreme as the fishermen, or maybe not. Whatever God is calling you to do, listen to Him. Dance your way down the path that Jesus has prepared for you.