How to handle the news as a Christian (S. 2, Ep. 24)
Grab your latte & let's chat purpose. Listen In On Spotify | Pocket Casts | Anchor | Apple Podcasts season 2, Episode 24 How to handle the news as a ChristianIt’s been a hard season of news, especially lately it just feels like it’s one thing after...
Why We’re Not Forging Our Own Purpose
“Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.” Psalm 127:1-2
If we want to step into all that God has for us, we have to do just that: STEP INTO all that HE has for us.
Friends, it is time to stop forging our own path. This little section of scripture holds SO MUCH regarding purpose.
Without God building anything and everything we do, even when we do it or reach for it with hard work, diligence and even anxious toil, it’s in vain.
Purpose in Pain
We often think of feeling pain as weak.
We tend to push it deep down, leaving undealt-with emotions and agony.
But over the years I’ve found that there is purpose in pain. God uses pain in countless ways, some of which we may never even see.
I grew up on a farm with a get-tough attitude. Though this helped me have thick skin, it often made pain difficult to deal with, so I pushed it deep down. I felt like a failure if I was hurt and felt any sort of emotional pain. Eventually I learned that there is a strange, beautiful purpose in pain.
Pain is something we all have in common: broken families, difficult relationships, death.
As humans, we have all felt that suffering to some extent or we will.
Though we may see and feel the hard times, we have a difficult time walking through those seasons and seeing purpose through it all.
When painful times come, we often ask the Lord to get us out of the trial, not grow and strengthen us as we walk through it.
How to Make BIG Decisions – The Guide that Will Never Fail You Pt. 2
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105).
When the Bible really doesn’t seem to answer our questions, the verse still applies.
When the decisions we need to make are non-moral, the Bible is still a guide.
Let’s live determined to have God’s wisdom guiding us, His Word being a light to our paths, and let’s watch our path, even in making big decisions, be guided.
But if there’s no verse for questions like where to go to college, what job to take or who to marry, how do we navigate these decisions?
The Life Guide That Will Never Fail You
I’ve found one simple thing to GENUINELY guide me. If you grew up in the church it sounds cliché. But the absolute reality is that the Bible is a guide.
Now before you roll your eyes and click out, hear the why.
Because this truth APPLIES.
It applies to what friends you should have, to who you should and should NOT date, to deciding on if you should go to that party, take that job, etc.
And if you’re mind is going where mine goes, NO. You’re right.
The Bible is not going to tell you to go to XYZ college and there won’t be verse telling you to move to Kentucky. But it will guide you and, in fact, it brings a lot of peace and guidance in even questions such as those.
Here’s why we can trust the Bible to be a life guide – in all areas, and here’s why we SHOULD.
Why Being Still Is Key to Purpose
Sometimes in the hustle and bustle of life I forget to take a much needed deep breath.
I find that my days are often full of to-do lists, friends to meet up with, places to serve in, and school work that keeps me occupied.
A lot of times I think this is what purpose is supposed to look like:
doing a hundred and one things and making a difference and impacting the world slowly but surely, even in the tiniest of ways.
Take a moment and think about that though.
Doesn’t that seem daunting? Going and going and not even taking the time to recover, to quiet my soul?
I think often we (myself included) believe we aren’t living purposefully if we aren’t actively serving or accomplishing things each day of the week.
But here’s the thing –
How can we expect to live purposefully if we aren’t purposefully finding and setting aside time to sit at the feet of Jesus.
Purpose in Trials
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
Romans 8:18
This day five years ago was a Wednesday.
This day five years ago my life changed drastically.
It was the day my abuela was murdered.
It was the day that many doubts and questions flooded into my mind:
“Why did God allow such an amazing, God-fearing woman to be killed?”
“Why did God have to take her away so soon?”
“Why, God?”
But what I didn’t realize, for this time that I was so upset with God, was that He had His whole plan of her sweet life in His hands even before time began.
He knew she was going to live for Him.
What I didn’t realize was that this tragedy brought my whole family so much closer together.
He knew this death would help us lean on each other through hard times.
What I didn’t realize was that the Lord knows, even in the future, how her story might help so many others.
He knew from the beginning all of this was for a plan, a purpose.
What I didn’t realize was that my abuela had lived so purposefully that her life was most definitely not wasted.
God knew. God knows.