Was there ever a point in your life where you just wanted to give up?
So… I’m at the library writing my first formspring/tumblr entry of the new semester!
*thunderous applause*
So this question has been in my inbox for…. 6 whole months.
…Yea, that’s how long you have to wait to have your questions answered by yours truly.
But, as you all know, it’s totally worth it.
p.s I currently have just 3 questions in my inbox so uh… if you guys could ask some questions, that’d be great.
…it’d be kinda embarrassing if I ran out and had to start asking myself questions.
I really don’t usually take too long, I just had a bit of a summer hiatus and… let’s be honest, who wants to answer this question???
So I’ve kinda avoided it for a while but due to recent events, I feel like I’m in a good place to write about it.
So here it is, 6 months in the making.
(not really.)
I’ll be honest with you, I live a very, very, very comfortable life.
You might say I live… “the good life”
Not like… Kanye West’s good life.
More like One Republic’s good life.
Which I think, overall, is better.
In fact, you could even say I live “the suite life.”
(yea, right, I wish. I’ve spent many a moment envisioning what my life would be like with Brenda Song. Let me tell you, It’s a Wonderful Life)
Ok, I’m done.
So anyways, I live a pretty sheltered, comfortable life.
I’ve been really blessed to not be in any serious need financially.
I’ve also been pretty careful to avoid dangerous things.
You know, like…
Lava
Carcinogens
Busy intersections
Wet floors
Sharp things
Women
Etc.
As a result of this, anytime I encounter a bit of adversity, I do tend to be a bit of a crybaby.
There are two kinds of crybabies: ones that immediately seek help and consolation and those who just like to sit there and wallow in their own sadness.
Is it weird that when I wrote that last sentence, the mental image I got was two babies with poopy diapers, one crying for its mom, the other content to sit in its own waste?
Anyway, I’m actually the latter of the two. (the one that will just sit in its own poop.)
When I’m sad, I prefer to just be alone and think. Maybe go play some basketball, maybe go lay in my bed and sulk, maybe listen to some coldplay. You know, that kind of stuff. Coming to terms with my own sadness and working through it makes me feel better.
However, as anyone will tell you, it’s probably healthier to talk it out with someone you trust when you’re feeling a bit down. (again, ask someone to change your diaper, or just sit in it?)
But what happens when you talk to someone and you don’t feel better afterwards?
…Or you don’t have anyone to talk to at all?
Or you sit there alone with your sadness, and it doesn’t get better… it gets worse?
And you’re hopeless.
-
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not having hope is one of the worst places you can be in life.
[edit. I’m sure a lot of you read that article about bullying from Yahoo. Terrible, terrible stuff.]
The other day, I saw the facebook wall of a teenager who had just passed away. Nearly all of their friends had written a post… saying how much they loved them and how much they will be missed.
If you’re fortunate enough to never have seen the facebook walls of someone who’s recently died, let me tell you: they are so powerful.
It’s sad to think that for the most part, all the messages of love fall on deaf ears.
We need to do a better job affirming others and letting them know how much they mean to us.
Now.
And for the times that we start to feel hopeless ourselves, we have to know:
We are loved.
Maybe by just one person
Or one pet
Or just by God Himself
But we are loved.
And I know it’s easy to focus on all the bad things in the world… but there is always so much good.
I love the speech Sam gives Frodo in the 2nd Lord of the Rings Movie. (I’m sure it’s also in the book, but… confession: I haven’t read them.)
You know which one I’m talking about…
It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something… That there’s some good in this world and its worth fighting for.
Life is tough, but there’s no doubt in my mind it’s worth living, either for yourself, for others, or something greater.
Life is still beautiful. [ don’t believe me? Check out givesmehope.]
I want to share a Bible verse that never really stuck out to me at first…It’s actually the theme verse this year for my apartment complex, but didn’t really stick out to me until now.
John 1:5 “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. [NLT]
Cheers.
