What we see is what we know. What we have experienced is what we do. We can only love the way we have received love. Our skills are only as good as our teacher. Our capacity to be and live is limited by our knowledge.
And so often we become so content doing things the way we have been doing them. Living day by day can easily become actions of patterns without thought. Especially in America, routine jobs can quickly take the place of following our hearts or serving out of passion and purpose. Schedules and endless tasks take the thought out of life. But if we are not careful, business can also steal the joy and focus of living.
We Americans are too often content to live busy, selfish lives- striving for the American dream.
We live at a pace few countries can compete with. We think it is the normal to schedule 22 activities and tasks in the day. We live to fulfill other's expectations of us, we value our neighbors thoughts; our over-taxing jobs so we can gain more wealth.
It's ok to hate your job. It's expected to feel burnt out at times and not take vacations.
Yet until I arrived in Kenya, I didn't realize how much night shift nursing in the hospital had affected my heart. I was tired of doing the same thing over and over again, tired of night shifts, tired of hospitals and too many patients-- so I turned off my heart and my emotions. I stopped dreaming, stopped hoping, stopped serving out of love-- and I made myself work and do without feeling, because I had too.
Quiet mornings in Kenya make me rewind my brain and think about the whys and purpose of life. Here I have so much time to feel, think, and decide what I love. Beyond the doing, what is reason? Where is the passion? Where is the purpose? If the depth of living is found in experiencing Jesus and adventuring together, how do we get there?
How do we turn off the to-do lists, the needless alarms, the meaningless tasks, the noise so that we can live purposefully, we can live with our hearts, we can find Jesus- even in America.
Every time I travel, see a new place, and especially live in a new area-- it widens my eyes! I see people in a new way, see God in a new way, and see my life in America in a new perspective. I don't want to waste my life. I don't want to waste my time, or my loves, or my passions. I don't want to waste the time, gifts, or talents Jesus has given me-- and He doesn't want us too.
We have to stop living with our eyes closed even if we are used to it, or comfortable.
We have to find a way to live with purpose again.
And I believe Jesus wants us to do just that..
"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, but I come that they may have life and have it more abundantly." John 10:10
What would an abundant life look like for you?
What would it take for you to live in love, to love your life, to adventure with God to new heights.
Because I believe an abundant life is possible for us.
