We rejoice.
We breathe.
We laugh.
We grieve.
We love.
We hurt.
We succeed.
We remember.
We pray.
We live.
Yet, despite it all, in this culture, it seems that we are afraid to feel anything too deeply… or maybe we simply have forgotten how. Maybe in the midst of growing up, moving on, rejoicing, grieving, and learning, we have forgotten to stop and just be.
Maybe with the business of the life that surrounds us, we forget to live. But what scares me is the thought of living in a world in which no one is able to feel at all.
A world in which feeling and being are stuffed under the rug, neglected and forgotten. Every day I am reminded that living does not necessarily mean being in control of one's life.
When tears burn your eyes in sympathy, or your chest feels tight from the fear rejection, or your throat constricts out of utter sadness, or when you love someone so hard that it feels like you are breaking, or when your adrenaline kicks in and you push yourself a little harder, or when the ocean winds blow through your hair or the smell of fresh rainfall overwhelms your senses, or when everyone you love is around you and is content, you are then reminded of what it means to be human, to be alive, and to have a heart.
I am learning to rejoice in times of not only beauty and still water, but in times of heartache and longing as well.
I am learning to feel all that I feel deeper and be present in all times of my life.
I am learning to be glad and sing because of the breath of my Jesus that fills my lungs.
I will run fast towards the invigorating depths of the ocean in which He leads me, and I will not fear.
So let me live.
Let me feel.
Let me laugh, but also, let me mourn for things past.
Let me succeed, but also, let me fail so long as I tried the unknown.
Let me remember, but also, let me be thankful for the present.
Let me be embraced in the loving arms of my savior while I worship him through the way I live.
Let me worship him through the way I stand up after I fall down.
Let me worship him through my successes, but also my failures.
Let me be still, and I will know that He is God, and no matter the circumstance, let me know that the God who created the heavens is still seated on His throne.