Hannah Chung

What is Love?

Definitions of Love

I think that there are almost too many definitions of love out there. A lot of the time people think romantically, which was what automatically came up when I was trying to find an image to go with this post! Just out of curiosity, I looked up several definitions of love. Apparently “true love” is “a strong and lasting affection between spouses or lovers who are in a happy, passionate and fulfilling relationship” (Yourdictionary.com). Other examples were between family and friends, caring about one another, or in terms of couples, having attraction.

None of these definitions satisfy me.

A Different Meaning

I believe that those types of love are important, but if someone remains single their whole life, that does not mean that they haven’t experienced “true love”. If someone loves their relative or friend (not romantically obviously), that does not mean that they aren’t “truly loving” that person.

The perfect example of true love is what Jesus did for us on Good Friday. You are probably rolling your eyes, thinking about how this is the typical “Christian” response. But let me tell you something– it can be the most comforting thing in the world to realize that someone fully human and yet having the power of God was willing to give EVERYTHING up to pay for your poor choices. All because He loves you more than anyone else ever can.

Obviously we can’t love each other as much as Jesus loves us, but we can demonstrate His example of true love.

Of course I’m not telling you to run out in front of a car in the hopes that you’ll prove your love for someone. What I’m saying is that my main issue with the media’s definition of love is that it’s so selfish. We don’t have to give up anything. We are merely looking for someone that makes us feel good.

You need people in your life that reciprocate your love or make you happy, but you also have to be willing to love difficult people. Even those that you love with all your heart may be in situations that cause you to give up something for them. If you’re willing to be selfless, like Jesus, then you are showing true love.

So this Good Friday, think about all that Jesus gave up to be in such a horrific situation, being mocked and betrayed, poked and stabbed, nailed to a wooden cross after this torturing, just for you. All He asks is that you be willing to accept this gift of love and share it with others.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
1 John 4:7-8

Jesus’ Call to Action

What comes to mind when you think about the Last Supper and Jesus’ time in the garden?

For me, I’ve been trying to give it more thought this year since I’ve had more time to really appreciate Easter now that my regular life has been disrupted, as I’m sure yours has too. In a way, it’s a blessing, because although I miss getting to go to church for Easter and celebrating, it makes me spend more time thinking about what Easter actually means to me.

I’ve been reading through the Easter passages this week, and today I read about what happened on Thursday. Usually I just skim it and think about the overall messages. While I tried to read more in depth this time, some initial thoughts came to mind…

Who Do You Usually Turn to?

One overall message that comes to mind that I think is very important is how Jesus turned to God in his time of trouble because even His closest friends bailed out on Him. I’m sure you’ve have that moment in your life where someone near to you let you down. For me, those have been the most heartbreaking moments of my life. It makes me feel discouraged and as though I can’t trust anyone.

But those are also the moments when I’ve drawn closer to God. In a small group I’m in, we were actually discussing what benefits can come out of hardships, and the one that was often repeated was that our trials cause us to grow nearer to God. He will always be the One waiting for us when we need Him, even when His answer to our pleas is no.

Jesus asked God if there was any way for Him to not have to die on the cross. But He also said “let Your will be done”. We can ask God the tough questions, why things are the way they are, can things change…but we also have to make room for His will to be done. Sometimes, as difficult as it is, God’s answer is that He will be with you, but the suffering isn’t over. That can be hard to come to terms with, since we usually want our faith to feel easy and a way to make our lives better. And it does make our lives better because we always have a reason to feel joyful– God will never leave us.

A New Find in a Familiar Passage

I don’t know if reading this passage about Jesus in the garden with his sleeping disciples showed me different things now that I know about the Enneagram and being a Nine, but I felt compelled to respond to the section where Jesus finds that all of the disciples are asleep for the third time He’s come over to them. He is frustrated and gives them a call to action.

“The hour has come”, or “the time is near”, as different translations put it. He wants them to stop sleeping and start being there for each other.

I think that this is an appropriate call to action for us today. For me personally, it can be hard to get going and actually do something about what’s bothering me. Sometimes I feel called to reach out to difficult people or take on responsibilities that I know I should do but don’t feel like doing.

But the hour is now. The time will never be “perfect”. We need to step up and do our part for Jesus, or else we will be like the disciples, sleeping as their Lord and dearest friend was about to be killed on their behalf. I used to laugh at them and think that they were ridiculous for being able to sleep through such an event. But now I feel shame as I realize that every time I say no or “maybe later” to what God’s calling me to do, I’m acting the same way.

So today, think about what Jesus is calling you to do. Perhaps it’s something you’ve been avoiding, or maybe a new task that has yet to come to mind. Jesus doesn’t want us to sit around, even when we are quarantined. There are many ways for us to reach out to the isolated or spread God’s love through the media. The perfect time to do His will is now.

“Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners.'”
Matthew 26:45

Trusting God Through Everything

First of all, I’d like to apologize since I was really getting into the groove of posting regularly, just to abruptly stop even though right now is the perfect time to share encouragement (even though I believe every moment is a good time for encouragement), but especially through all of the changes going on in our lives right now with the Coronavirus. People are stressed, worried about catching the virus, losing their jobs, loved-ones getting it, and maybe even how to stay sane while feeling isolated from others.

Before I go on any further, please know that all of you out there are in my prayers. I know that many are going through much severer times than I am right now. I feel very fortunate that my grandparents in Hong Kong are okay, people are trying to do the right thing and stay home to protect others around me, and much of my family is staying employed. However, I know that is not the case for many people, and I am determined to do my part to encourage those who may have hit their rockiest time right now, and if there’s anything I can do for you specifically, let me know.

I recently saw a video from a singer that I follow, and her message was that you can say that you trust someone as much as you want, but you can never truly know if you do until it’s put to the test. You have to have that trust be put into action for it to go into effect.

For example, if your friend claims that you can tell her anything, you won’t really know if you believed that statement until you tell her something personal. Or when a little kid is stuck inside a burning building, he has to demonstrate his trust for his parents by being willing to jump out the window into their arms, knowing that they will catch him.

This virus and all the consequences surrounding it are a test to see if we really trust God.

I have noticed a startling pattern in my life. Often during my hardest times in my relationship with God, the thing that has brought me back has been when I truly had no other option but to trust God, and He’s always been able to pull through. Now, I’m saying this while knowing that a lot of my prayers have not been answered the way I wanted them to. I’m going through some situations with people that are frustrating and some of them have ended up poorly, even if I prayed about them. That doesn’t mean that God isn’t there for me.

I’m also not saying that it’s easy to trust God. It’s been really hard for me lately to trust Him, to be completely honest.

The other day, someone told me that I seemed to have great confidence in my faith. I wish that were true. I am confident that my faith has grown over the years, through difficult circumstances and through kindness poured out from others, or directly from God in the Bible. But you don’t have to be without doubts to trust God. You just have to be willing to not simply think “I trust God”, but to actually apply it in your life. You have to not only pray that God will help you, but stop worrying about it. If you are actively looking for God’s hand in your life, you will find it. That I am sure of.

For all those Disney fans out there, I have to say that one of my all-time favorite scenes is where Aladdin has his hand stretched out to Jasmine and he says, “Do you trust me?” I personally think that this is one of the most romantic scenes in all of the Disney movies I’ve seen because it shows a depth in their relationship and a true conflict that many face in their relationships.

Unlike Jasmine, who barely has any reasons to actually trust Aladdin, we have a multitude of reasons why we should trust God. Take a look at His promises in the Bible. Think about the narrow escapes you’ve made in your own life, or what God’s done in other people’s lives. We have reason to trust God through this difficult time, and others to come.

God is asking you always the same question– “Do you trust me?”

So the question is, are you willing to make the leap of faith to prove your answer?

“But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you.”
Psalm 5:11

A Meaningless Life

“Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.”
Ecclesiastes 2:8

Do you ever read a verse in the Bible and go “WOAH, like…I actually relate to that!”?

So I read this verse the other day and it really struck me. A lot of times in my life I have wondered if what I’m doing is really worth anything. I have done some pretty trivial things in my life, blowing them all out of proportion in my head, just for them to not work out. I focus my time and energy on things and end up with nothing in the end.

I think that whether we seem to have achieved anything at the end of a particular journey is the motivation behind it. I’ll give you two examples from my own life. (Yes they will be cringy but hopefully you can relate better haha)

Example A: In middle school, probably the most awkward time of most people’s lives, I really wanted to be friends with this one person, so I went to great lengths to try and do whatever I could to connect with her. I went to embarrassing lengths, to be honest, and now I regret that. She ended up not really realizing that I wanted to be friends with her, after all that, and eventually we both just moved on. My motivation behind wanting to be friends with her was not really that I cared a lot about her, it was more that I really wanted to have that person as my friend because it would open up doors for me and because I wanted to be more like her. In the end, I was left with really nothing to show for my efforts.

Example B: For several years, I knew of a family going through a really rough time. I gave whatever I could to them, knowing that they probably couldn’t even give me much appreciation in return. I cared very deeply for them and I knew that what I was doing to show them love, even if it might have seemed “over-the-top”, was what God wanted me to do. In the end, I really have nothing to “show for it”, but I still know that I did what was right and I feel like I did gain some things: compassion and understanding, to name a few.

I think it’s important to frequently check in with yourself and see what your motivations are behind your actions and pursuits. Sometimes the motivation starts off as good, but turns more selfish as you go along. Other times it’s the opposite. But if you want to live a meaningful life, you should have self-awareness and listen to the sometimes unconscious realizations of your heart, telling you what you should and shouldn’t do. If you are beginning to feel like you are really just being nice to a person because you feel like you have to or you want something out of the relationship, then you should change your mindset. If you feel discouraged because you have been showing God’s love to someone who is not reciprocating, remember that you are still doing the right thing and eventually you will reap the benefits of these actions. If nothing else, you will have become a better person. But also make sure to surround yourself with people who care about you and fill you up, too. It’s easy to become drained when constantly pouring out but never getting poured into.

A lot of people worry that at the end of their life no one will really remember them or their accomplishments anymore. Honestly, if you weren’t the leader of a country or the face of a movement, that’s quite likely, at least eventually. But the thing that really matters is how you impacted others and how you felt at the end of your life. Did you do what God was telling you to? Did you make other people feel like they belonged? Did you notice that one person who needed a friend and loved on them?

Take the time today to think about what you want to have said yes to at the end of your life. Use today to be the day to make that yes an honest one. Every day that you are here is for a reason, and if you use each day of your life, then you will never regret a single moment.

True Joy = Releasing Control

Returning to Our Regularly Scheduled Program…

So…remember how I said I would be talking about joy as my first “series”? Remember how that was like…five months ago or something? Well, as you can see, I often go off topic and somehow wander back, ha-ha. Anyway, I have been thinking about joy again, so I wanted to pop into this series again, although I’m not sure if my next post will be related to joy, we’ll see.

Inherited Control-Freakness

I come from a long line of control freaks. I’m not being judgmental when I say this, they are self-proclaimed. I, myself, am also a bit of a control freak. I might not seem like it on the surface level, because I tend to go along with what other people want and I try to be flexible because I care deeply about pleasing others. However, I am actually quite stubborn, and I inwardly panic whenever things don’t go the way I plan.

I am more like this when I am placed in leadership positions or just when planning my own life, but my family often tries to control one another. A certain member of my family sets out what the other person must eat for lunch each day, and gets irritated if that person does not eat it. Money, food, how a room is decorated…those are just a few things that I often have to argue about with my family because I get frustrated with them trying to control me.

Am I saying that planning is a bad thing? NO!!!! I am definitely not, because you should be prepared and it’s silly to go into situations and build more stress for yourself if you don’t prepare. However, I am saying that at some point, the only way to have full faith in God and in His plan for your life is going along with “God’s flow”.

Going with the Flow

So I have this friend, and we occasionally talk about the future. Every time, he repeatedly states how he just “goes with the flow” and acts like he has no control over his life. Later on, I talked to another guy and he basically said the same thing. I feel like the world is often split into two groups: The Planners and the Floaters. Neither are wrong, yet neither are right.

Going with the flow may appear to relieve more stress and show more faith in God. But God will only work with you if you’re willing to actually, you know, do your part? Frankly, I feel like going with the flow in ALL areas of your life might actually add more stress because you often step into situations and are faced with a bunch of decisions that have to be made on the spot. I am horrible at that, so I could never float through life that way. However, there are definitely decisive people out there, so if that works for you, I’m glad.

The combination of going with the flow and always being prepared is going with God’s flow. I know that sounds a little silly, but that’s the only name I can think of that accurately depicts what I’m speaking of.

Going with God’s flow means that you are trusting God and not freaking out when things don’t go the way you anticipated. However, it also means that you are willing to work hard and still prepare for the future, not just expecting things to somehow work out.

How Does this Relate to Joy?

Have you ever stressed over something, an event perhaps, that you were in charge of. You were so panicked that by the end of it, you wanted to just go away and never be in charge again? While others enjoyed themselves, you spent the night stressing over everything and worrying that things weren’t going to work out. In that situation, you are missing out on having a good time, or experiencing joy.

In another situation, you may have planned every last detail down to the tablecloth design and then everything still ends up going poorly. Believe me, this has happened to me on numerous occasions and I can feel your pain! But because you were so disappointed and discouraged, you never took the time to learn from the experience. And in a way, this also causes you to lose joy because you may end up making the same mistakes in the future.

I don’t believe that joy and fear can coexist, as I stated in a previous post, and trying to control everything is a way of demonstrating fear. It’s basically telling God to His face that you don’t trust Him and you think you know more than Him.

Ouch, that wasn’t what I was thinking when I freaked out over not being able to decide the location for my last meeting, was I?

It’s easy to not realize what our little habits are doing to destroy our lives and our relationship with God. But the more ingrained these thought patterns become, thinking “oh, if only things had gone the way I had planned” or getting angry with people, the more we lose track of who we are supposed to be: joyful humans who are sharing the love of God. It’s easy to let negative thoughts fill our heads. We think that criticizing ourselves for something we can’t control is okay, and it’s not. That is ultimately shaping our actions and our opinions of ourselves.

So today, try to let loose a little bit and see what happens. Trust God and believe that even if things don’t go exactly the way you want, maybe something better was actually waiting for you. It hopefully will also help your relationships too.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?”
~Matthew 6:25

What Are We Doing?

“What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.”
Tim Ferriss

Do you ever take the time to just sit back and observe your habits?

Well, I was about two weeks ago. I realized that I was spending a crazy amount of time on my phone, and I challenged myself to use my phone no longer than two hours. Then I realized I could do even better: one hour.

So, I met my goal…but I was still wasting time. Instead of going on my phone, I was watching Netflix, looking up whatever things I had forgotten to check on, and all sorts of things that would take up time that I should’ve spent doing other things.

The good news is that I did spend more time relaxing (without a screen) and doing my Bible study, but I still was wasting a lot of time. There is always going to be another way to do the thing you are trying to avoid.

I wasn’t even realizing what I was doing for about a week and a half, but a couple days ago I sat back and asked myself “what am I doing?”.

And that made me think. In the United States, we have so many opportunities. We have so many ways we can help each other, get to know new people, and try new things. But what are we doing?

More and more people are feeling anxious, lonely, inadequate. What are we doing that’s causing these problems?

In a country where we are generally known as being progressive and workaholics, the main prayer request I receive from my friends or the frequent complain that I hear is this: I really need to stop procrastinating! I’m not getting anything done.

Or, more personally, you may be letting yourself slip into a cycle or a mindset that you don’t want to be in.

A problem that I have is generally not admitting the truth to myself. I would (and still) say yes to things that I don’t want to do, and force myself to think that they will be fun just to please other people. I pretend like a relationship is fine when I know that it’s mostly one-sided. I forget who I am when someone else defines me.

You may have similar problems or something completely different. The important thing is to notice when you begin to slip into thinking negatively, listening to unwise council, spending hours not doing what you should be getting done, hanging onto a bad relationship. It’s hard to have difficult conversations with others, but having that difficult conversation with yourself? That’s the worst of it. You have to admit that you were wrong, or someone else you trusted was wrong. You have to change.

I think that our society needs to change. And I’m not going to just be that person criticizing the way things are and putting myself separate from that. I know that I have fallen into the same traps of overlooking people, letting what the world says influence my choices. I know that it takes a community, not just one person, to make the differences we wish to see in the world. But I also know that if every person did one intentional thing to become more productive, more loving, more informed…that would change everything.

Maybe if we all take just one step closer to becoming more of who we were created to be, we wouldn’t feel defensive when asked the simple question “what are we doing?” because you can answer in confidence. You can say, “I’m doing what it takes to love others…to change the world.”

So, what are you doing?

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Romans 12:2

Still Human

“Never regret being a good person, to the wrong people. Your behavior says everything about you, and their behavior says enough about them.”
Marc and Angel

I think that the greatest disservice you can do to a person is put them on a pedestal and expect them to be perfect.

The best way to destroy something beautiful is by comparing it to something else.

First of all, I just want to say that I don’t know everything, but all I’m trying to do is share what I’ve learned so far in my life and hopefully give you new perspective.

One of the biggest mistakes in my life has been making another person so great in my head that if they ever do anything wrong, I am extremely disappointed.

I’m going to be completely honest with you because that’s the only way to gain trust and credibility. It’s the only way you’re going to believe even a word that I say.

One of the worst things that ever happened to me was partially attributed to the fact that I made someone out to be a person she was not.

We were super close. Growing up, this was probably my most important relationship outside of my relationships with my family. It could be argued that she did things that caused our friendship to fall apart, but the reason they affected me so much was because I saw her out as someone who couldn’t do any wrong. We rarely fought, we were the image of what best friends were supposed to be. In my head, the comparisons were always rolling.

And that leads me to my second point. The greatest disservice you can do to yourself is blame yourself for your mistakes or your lacking in an area of your life.

I think I started resenting her the second I let go of the idea of us being close. She was perfect at everything and I was not. She was beautiful and I was normal. She got the best grades and I was just average. I was not special when I compared myself to her.

But that didn’t mean I was right.

The thing that pulled the comparison over the edge was when she got into the “perfect relationship”. I could fudge over the other things I lacked. I could show her my riding ribbons whenever she mentioned her assortment of accomplishments. I could think about the one time my teacher complimented my work as she complained about an A- in Chemistry on one test (I fought hard to get a B in that class). I would do whatever I could to look halfway decent for the few days we would spend together to feel somewhat comparable. But I couldn’t just create a halfway decent relationship out of thin air.

To make matters worse, I had some other things going on at school that made me feel even more inadequate in comparison to all of her working out relationships. I felt lonely and isolated. I went through my darkest period of time.

And then I found a new group of people to put on a pedestal.

It started out innocently enough. In fact, that was honestly the problem.

I was naive and assumed that because one friend was kind, the rest would be too. But in reality, I was left emptier and lonelier than ever before. And I attribute much of those feelings to the fact that I expected them to be perfect. After all, that was the image they seemed to want to project. I was as nice as I could be to them (albeit a bit shyly), and after they dumped me, I regretted ever trusting them.

Maybe I shouldn’t have trusted them. I definitely shouldn’t have had such high opinions of them. But I should never regret being kind to them.

Going back to the friend I was originally speaking of, for a while I regretted being friends with her at all. But the more I think about it now, with over a year under my belt from the incident, the more I feel grateful that I had that experience.

You heard me. Grateful. I’m grateful because it taught me exactly what that quote said. The moments I will regret the most are the ones where I’m unkind to people, no matter if they were nice to me or not. I know that I have looked weird or naive for being kind to people who have hurt me, but I will always know in my heart that the reason I was being nice after everything was not because I expected them to somehow change. Rather, I was simply realizing that the only way to have a life worth living is having love for others.

The most important part to remember is that you can’t blame yourself for how other people act towards you. You don’t have to blame yourself for your past when it’s time to move on. If someone breaks your trust, it isn’t your fault. If you loved someone that turns on you, it’s not your fault. It’s a reflection of who they truly are inside. The only one who can reflect who you are inside is YOU.

“Let all that you do be done in love.”
1 Corinthians 16:14

Never For Nothing

There once was a story that I heard, a fable of sorts, and it went similarly to this: There was a person who thought that he was having guests over that he wanted to impress, so he cleaned his entire house, something he had not done for quite some time. He spent hours upon hours cleaning, and his house had never looked quite so good. But then the guests cancelled, and only his wise neighbor came by to visit. The man said, “What a waste it was to do all this work for nothing.” The neighbor replied, “What do you mean? Now you finally have a clean house!”

This story came to mind tonight as I thought about all the things I’ve done in my life that I thought had no value. Some of these things may sound familiar to you. Reaching out to a person just to receive nothing back, going out of my comfort zone, starting things that may not always turn out the way I expect.

If you’re waiting for things to go the way you want them to, and that is the only way for them to have value, then I guess you’ll have always been right. There was no point.

But if you see the clean house, the long term effects, the person you became through the process of disappointment, discouragement, and confusion, then everything will have a purpose.

There are so many stories of people who were going through a rough time and one person reached out to them, showed them God’s love, and changed their life forever. I want to be part of a story like that, and you might too. But that person who reached out may not have felt appreciated or the rewards of their work with every person they reached out to. We may only being hearing about the one out of every twenty that was changed. But isn’t that one worth all the rest?

Jesus is so often compared to a shepherd, one that will leave the ninety nine to find just one sheep that’s lost. We should be willing to do that too.

That is one motivator for trying even when things don’t seem to be reaping success. But another is that we may have no idea what the effects are of what we are doing until much later.

I recently heard the true story of a man in Australia who spent every day greeting travelers and spreading God’s love and hospitality. People absolutely loved him. One day, after years of doing this, he was getting older and in the hospital. A teacher had heard about what this man had done and about hundreds of people around the world who had become Christian because of him. He sparked questions and a longing to know what he was talking about in these people. So the teacher flew all the way to Australia to meet this remarkable person. And you know what? After the teacher told the man all about how many lives he had changed, the man began to cry. Despite doing this every single day of his life for so long, he had no idea if even one person had been saved. But he still kept trying. And it was worth it.

Many of us will never know on this side of Heaven whether anything we did for others had the effect we desired. It’s hard to wait, I know. I have often felt discouraged as I poured out my heart for people, doing whatever I thought I could, knowing that it would never be enough to get them what they needed. It’s even worse when the people you care so much about do not seem to always notice your efforts. But I have to have faith that I did the right thing, and if you are or have been in a similar situation, then I hope you do too.

Whether you are wondering if your actions for others was worthwhile or not, you can never have complete peace until you take a look at things from a new perspective. You have to see the clean house rather than the guests that didn’t show up. You have to keep going even if you don’t know if it will ever pay off. You should have the desire to do what God is calling you to do, even if it doesn’t make sense right now. Because it will.

My point is this: it won’t have worth until you believe that it does. What you do with the right heart is never for nothing.

“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost?”
Matthew 18:12

Don’t Ignore What’s Right in Front of You

“Everyone chases after happiness, not noticing that happiness is right at their heels.”
Bertolt Brecht

I think it’s really easy for us to simply miss the complete obvious. I know that I’ve done that before, and I’d consider myself a pretty observant person. I think that the easiest things for us to ignore, though, are the messages that we don’t want to hear.

Let me give you two examples, a funny one and a more serious one.

Say Gerald McHarold (not a real person obviously), the grossest guy at the office, has been giving you boxes of chocolate, saying hi whenever he saw you, and complimenting that ugly sweater you wear to please your grandmother. Well, you definitely don’t want to imagine yourself with Mr. McHarold here, so you pretend and even tell others that he has no interest in you. Yet clearly, as your best friend loves to point out, he clearly has been bitten by the love bug. But you might have tricked yourself so much into believing that he doesn’t like you that you stop noticing the evidence.

Or, you see a friend who you have always relied on suddenly changing. She is quiet, and distant, and she’s even stopped enjoying her favorite things. But you can’t stand the thought of her not being happy or not being there for you, so you ignore the signs that something is wrong. You might ask her if she’s okay, and she lies and says she is, but really, she isn’t. However, you don’t want to disturb this perfect image you have of her, that something could actually be going wrong, so you ignore the signs that you need to take uncomfortable action.

For me, neither of these particular instances prompted me to write this post. It was just a rather direct realization of mine that struck me hard, but has been sticking with me a lot lately.

What we have planned out in our heads may not be what ends up happening. And with a few particular things, God has been showing me that perhaps I have gotten as close as I can, and I will venture no further.

This reminds me of Moses, actually. He thought that he would go to the Promise Land. Come on, he KNEW it! He wouldn’t have traveled 40 years if he didn’t think he would reach there eventually. This could be like that dream job you were hoping for, that dream person you had your eye on, that dream connection with a family member or friend that you have been waiting for. We all have our “Promise Land”.

Yet he didn’t even reach the border.

And sometimes we don’t get what we deeply desire either. The job is given to someone else, our dream person doesn’t notice us, that connection never happens because the other person isn’t ready or can’t resolve their differences.

For Moses, the reason why he didn’t was because of a punishment for disobeying God. But for us, it can be a variety of reasons. Perhaps we didn’t actually do anything wrong, it just wasn’t part of the plan for our lives. But it hurts the same way.

There are so many stories of how people were being saved for something or someone greater. But they mean nothing at the time of the pain.

Moses, however, was given something to keep his hopes up. He was able to take a look at the Promise Land.

Now, for a while, I thought that God was being cruel by doing this, because I felt like it would like seeing your favorite dessert but not getting to eat it. (Only a million times worse, of course!) But over time, I realized that maybe this wasn’t a bad deal after all.

When God gives us a glimpse of what could be, of the greatness He has in store, we are more motivated to try harder. We can have hope that even if this isn’t the person, the job, the relationship…there is still something amazing out there for us.

But if we ignore the signs that we have to move on from our dreams and look to God’s dreams, then we might miss out on the glimpse of hope. We might even miss out on what God is trying to teach us from the heartache or from the potentially “not-what-we-exactly-wanted” outcomes.

It’s really difficult being real with our feelings. Sometimes it’s hard to admit how much disappointment we feel when our plans don’t work out. But if we are vulnerable and honest with God, then He can help us move on faster. He can help us see what we want for the future, and how we can become who we want to be.

All we have to do is stop, take a deep breath, and notice.

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Hebrews 11:1

Rusty Faith

A Rusting Flute

About three years ago, I gave up my aspirations of becoming a good flute player. I had started playing the flute in third grade, and continued through freshmen year, and the more I played it, the more I despised it. It wasn’t the actual playing of the flute that annoyed me, but the fact that I felt like everyone was better at playing it in Band than me, and I hated practicing. Anyway, today I pulled it out to practice it, and I probably haven’t cleaned it in at least six months to maybe even a year. I was still stunned though, when I saw the rust and the grime covering it’s used-to-be shiny silver. I was saddened as I thought about how I used to care for this flute and now it was left by the wayside as my passion and time for the flute slowly dwindled away.

However, as I picked it up, after spending a bit of time polishing it, I remembered almost every note as though no time had passed since I last played it. Of course, I definitely did not sound as good as I once had when I had given flute playing the energy and devotion it takes, but I still remembered something.

Thanks for the story…but how does this relate to me??

Well, believe it or not, when I was cleaning my rusting flute, the first thing I thought of was how our faith can become “rusty” when we do not take the time, energy, and devotion it takes to strengthen it.

I have personally had this happen to me before. I’ll complain about how God feels so far away or how I haven’t heard from Him lately, when really, He’s waiting all along. It was me who didn’t take the time to read my Bible, it was me who was “too tired” to pray when I had spent a few hours before bed doing other stuff. So really, is it God’s fault when He feels far away?

I think that sometimes we feel discouraged in our faith, and that causes us to spend less effort “maintaining” it.

For example, I have fallen into the trap of watching those super passionate Christians spreading God’s love around their community, and seeming like they know all the answers, and have a better relationship with God than I do.

The truth: no one can have a “better” relationship with God; God offers us all an equal relationship with Him. Unlike pretty much everyone on the planet, God doesn’t pick favorites. He wants you to get closer to Him; He doesn’t try to make it more difficult than it has to be.

That being said, growing your faith takes time and effort. Both of those can be in short supply in this day and age. However, anything that will bring you closer to the One who loves you and knows you the most, and who helps you become a better person is worth it.

Once you get in the habit of not doing something, it’s even harder going back to it than trying to break a habit in the first place. Just think about it. When you stop exercising, stop reaching out to your friend that you don’t see often, stop your daily journaling…it takes a while and a whole lot of effort going back to it.

But it’s worth it.

You start feeling better about yourself, feeling closer to others, feeling God’s presence again. And those “little things” make all of the difference.

So today, I want you to take intentional time to start or continue a habit of polishing your faith. Start journaling each day, and never stop. Start making intentional prayer time, and never stop. Start doing a Bible study, and continuing to read your Bible after it’s over.

Just do something. And that will make your faith stop rusting and start feeling fresh and new again.

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Isaiah 41:10