Vision and a Box of Chocolates

"Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get" -Forest Gump's Momma

I suppose this statement could not be more true. The past few weeks have been, painful, frustrating, challenging, and I'm still not 100%, but such is life. It's interesting to learn in life, that we are creatures of habit, but we are also creatures of circumstance. Some things, can't simply be done, they need to be experienced on at a constant level. I suppose love is such...

So the past few weeks, I guess I've kept everyone on edge. I never stopped reading, but it became very difficult to pour out. I guess I had a lot of doubts, or perhaps maybe I didn't want to admit to myself that there was a very high cost to what I committed to do it, and doubted whether or not I was willing to pay it. I apologize for this epic moment of transparency. On top of the physical difficulties, and my right eye's hyper sensitivity to light. I guess my heart was a little broken, and it's hard to see something as a test when you feel a little broken, and a little weary. I kept reading through the word, looking for exactly what it was meant to bring us, hope. It's interesting how hope is such a motivational force in our hearts. The entire Bible is a story of hope.

Reading through the Old Testament, I'm realizing just how much it points to Jesus, and how much he fulfills our hopes and dreams. Throughout the book of Judges, it says that "there was no king, every man did was right in his own eyes." Interesting that the people were living with no physical king, but they had access to God and he was their king, and he allowed such a thing. He trusted that the hearts of men had been formulated with good. That within all of us their is desire to do good, and their is an understanding of the differences between good and evil within us. Still Israel cried out for a king, a physical leader, so they could be like surrounding nations. Thousands of years later, Jesus comes on the scene, and he becomes the King. He restores all of the vision that God originally intended for us, and I really believe he restored us because God ultimately believes in our capacity to do good, to love others, to do the right thing.

We often consider the difficulties in having faith in God, but do we consider how difficult it must have been to have faith in us? Our God who has worked tirelessly throughout history to ensure that we all have a fair and free will opportunity to access his presence.

I spent this past weekend with my family in Georgia, and for the past few weeks I've realized how important family is. It isn't perfect or something you can put into a neat little box. Family is messy, but somethings remain. Family will always love you. Yesterday, at my mothers church her pastor John Fichtner (who is awesome btw), said something really cool, in reference to the Father's Heart, he basically broke down three things that they were. (Hopefully I don't mess it up). One of them was the family, in thinking about this I had to consider how important it is in general to be attuned to the things of the father. When we consider God's plan for the world, it's much easier to understand God's plan for us as individuals. God purposed every family for each other, and we are all called to a standard of honor to the family he's given us. Don't get me wrong my family sometimes drives me crazy, but I love them. And my life feels most at ease when I am around them. Not just my blood, but the family God has blessed me with. The friends that have always treated me like family, the church family that gets freaked out, and goes to praying when somethings wrong with me. In Georgia family is so emphasized, and so honored, and everyone kind of treats everyone like family. In the city I guess it's easy to lose sight of that because their is so much emphasis on self, but what we miss out on is the best of ourselves. The parts of ourselves God has given, to teach and complement us, even when we don't wanna see it that way. God's love stretches out through every relationship, every time were forgiven by a loved one, every holiday where we honor a mother or a father. We honor and recognize his love for us, in those he's blessed us with. <3