A Different Me...

Life takes you through difficulties; it brings joy and sometimes-great sadness, but it is all to take you on a journey that many call destiny. Many remember the difficult times in their lives with great heartache and deep pain, not realizing that the pain they are remembering was to help them grow and mature.

I have many things in my life that I know I would not have achieve if it was not for the most difficult moments in my life. The pain was to help me be strong and accept challenges to come. The moments of poor decisions were to help me make better decisions later. Your greatest pains could be your greatest accomplishments.

Do you ever have times like this? Times when you want to experience something familiar, and then you try and travel roads already travelled. I mean things like hang out with people from past periods in your life or do things that you use to. It seems like whenever I have tried to do that the acts seems so foreign, even if I have done it many times in the past. I believe in those moments, I am supposed to be experiencing something new, something different.

That leads me to the title; today I think I am a different me. I have tried things I have never tried. I have done things that I thought I would never do. I have achieved things I never thought I would. Finally, I have loved as if I never knew I could. In order for me to achieve those things, I just mentioned I had to leave things in the past, and embrace that my deepest pains have created a different and better me…

Are You Living or Existing...

Last night, a friend and I saw the new Tyler Perry movie, The Family that Preys, a must see movie. There was a phrase in the movie that asked the question "Are you living or just existing?” I went wow! Am I, living or just existing?

Before the movie, at dinner we were talking about how people live to put on shows. They want everyone to believe their lives are perfect, that they have no problems. They carefully orchestrate their lives, so that it shows perfection, not a flaw in sight. They have to be careful not to show any emotions, they have to be careful not to show their sadness as well as hide any pain very carefully. To me, that is just existing and not living at all.

Unfortunately, the people we were talking about are Christians. They think that they are helping people, really, they do, and they have the best intentions at heart. They think that people will see their imagine and want Christ but I think 99% of the time people think those people are special and they will never be able to achieve that. What people want to see is "everyday folk" working through the problems of life with the Word of God. People are not looking for an imagine; they are looking for solutions to their reality...

Therefore, I ask you... ARE YOU LIVING OR JUST EXISTING!