Feels like time is pressing on you

Do you ever have those kind of days when it feels like time is pressing on you? You know you have to do this and that but you just don't feel motivated enough. You've enjoyed the support you been receiving from friends and family. Sometimes however it just seems like all the good advice is making you anxious because you don't know who to trust. That's where I'm at now. I do trust God. If I didn't, then I'd really be in a mess.

To me, it just seems foolish not to trust God. I love to read his Word and remember all the great promises in it. I confess that I don't dwell on it as much as I should. I admire the great Bible teachers and missionaries that have laid aside everything for the sake of others. This is hard for me. I could blame the circumstances that have led me to this stage or say that it's someone else's fault. I could blame my environment. Environment, some say, plays a big role in shaping character. No, I won't do that for the simple reason that we all make choices in life. Some are bad. Some are good.

I know I can't let the feeling of time pressing in on me be the deciding factor in whether or not I move forward or stay where I am. Change is scary, but having the Lord there beside you lessens the impact of it.

Time is just going too fast!

Yes, I'm having one of those weeks. You know the kind. You feel like you're running in twenty different directions and getting nowhere fast. It is funny when you stop and think about it. You blink and wonder what happened. It is times like this when you just want to sit back and let it all go. I know I can't. Too many people are counting on me. People like my mom and dad who have supported me. People like those who hunger to hear more about the past and long for a simpler time. I sometimes put too much pressure on myself as well.

I can't expect others to do what I need to do, yet I can't push myself to do what I'm not capable of doing. Does that make sense? Maybe not....I made myself take a week's vacation...at least I tried to. I couldn't help checking my e-mail and getting on Facebook though. I panic when I realize how little time I have to do much of anything....It's just going too fast!!!!

Dwelling on our own mortality-reflections

Sometimes we are so quick to say that things will always remain the same. None of us realize the brevity of life. We assume that each day we will have breath, we'll be in the same situation and that eventually everything we ever wanted to happen would happen. Life doesn't happen that way. We don't always get what we want, but we always get what we need.

I want to cry sometimes for the unfairness of it all. I watch the people I love around me falter as they try to recapture their youth. No one realizes that youth is fleeting, never to be visited again. Some try. I feel their ache as my own. I know in my heart that I have to make the most of the time I have here on Earth. This also is hard to do when it seems as if someone is pushing you one way, while another person is pulling you in another direction. What do we do? Do we give up, as some have done? It is tempting to do just that. You tell yourself and any one else who will listen that you have the right not to care. It is foolish, an inner voice tells you. You shut it off. You tell yourself that you're not going to listen to the wisdom of the words being spoken.

Shutting yourself off isn't the answer. You have to open yourself up, especially during those times when your inner voice screams to be left alone. It's hard. Everyone knows it. Speaking of mortality takes some courage, because we come to realize then that things won't remain the same. Some day soon we'll all part this mortal curtain. When we do, what will we find? Our fears tell us that we'll find loneliness and despair. Our hopes tell us that all our finest dreams will come true. Yet, if we're being logical, we know that it will be neither hope or despair that will greet us. Logic only takes us so far. It is cold and unfeeling, and doesn't take into account God's love for us.

The greatest marvel is that God loves us.

Trying to be tough and not succeeding

Yes, you read the title right. How many times have you tried being tough? Hard, wasn't it? It's not easy to stand and take the "medicine" of malicious people around you. You know that some of their criticism is right. You have to stop being so thin-skinned, so you can stand up. It's funny sometimes we think that we are so strong, so capable that nothing or nobody can stand in our way. Other times it's extremely difficult, if not impossible to stand at all.

I've had that kind of week. I know that this is the time when you have to let go, and not try to tough it out. I know I'm not going to succeed on my own. I know I need the support of family and friends to see me through and most importantly I need to continue to lean on God.

We do fight daily against the forces of evil. Sometimes it's quite easy to give in to the lusts and desires that vie for your attention. That's why you can't do it yourself. You are not strong enough to try and be tough. I think that is the hardest thing for me to learn. I can't depend on myself, nor can I depend on others...I have to depend on God. It's not that far fetched an idea, that dependence on God. It makes a whole lot of sense actually since he's in charge of everything anyway. Who are we fooling when we try to be tough? Ourselves, mostly and the people around us.