It's Going To Be a Beautiful Day.

These are the words written on a card on my desk. They greet me each and every morning.
You see, something that I've really been learning is that perception changes a lot about the world around us. Our days have the ability to either be stunningly beautiful, or stiflingly awful. However, our emotional state isn't determined by what has happend to us. The quality of our day isn't determined by the highs and the lows that come at scattered moments throughout the day. The phrase, "It's going to be a beautiful day" has absolutely nothing to do with what happens between the time that I roll out of bed, and the time that I crawl back into it. On the contrary, the beauty of my day lies in my perception.
We will all have bad things happen to us, and we will all have incredible times as well. What makes a day beautiful is the way that I take what comes my way. I like to look at it this way:
Life is like a baseball game. We will have a thousand balls pitched at us on any given day. Some pitches will be nice and slow; right down the middle. Other pitches might be wild and curving, but you can't duck. You can't duck the scary pitches because if you duck, you just might miss something beautiful.
You see, even though some of life's "pitches" might be crazy and scary, there are still more pitches coming. Life's an adventure, and by letting the "bad pitches"decide if things are good or bad, you cripple yourself. Through Him we always have hope in a brighter tomorrow, and that He knows what He is doing. Although some of the pitches may suck, there are beautiful pitches coming that you can knock out of the park.
We can't let negative moments get in the way, because by looking at the hope we have in Him, everyday is a beautiful day. Everyday, we have hope because everyday we have Him.

Grace Through Bloodshed

We are the Blood Redeemed.
Those thrown in the fiery furnace of affliction,
Like silver awaiting its purification.
Burn off every imperfection.
And when we look upon our own reflections,
Staring back at us,
May we see the Man who took on all our sins,
And pardoned us from every depraved iniquity.
Oh, Savior, wash us clean.

The Ghost Inside

All of us have our own ghosts of our past that live inside of us as emotional scars. These are scars that we have collected over the years through life's tough lessons. The thing is, we all have these ghosts from our past that haunt the person that we are today. Nothing is going to change the past, or change the way that it has shaped us. These scars are a fact of life. However, the problem comes in when we let them dictate our very existence. When we push people away because we are scared of getting hurt, or when we don't allow others in because we are scared they might not like what they see in us, we are allowing the scars to dictate and limit us in the present.
Scars are inevitable. We will encounter pain in our lives; we can't control that. However, we can control how we deal with that pain. If we allow it to stick with us, it turns into fear, and that fear holds us back. That fear can hold us back from experiencing some incredible opportunities or from allowing some incredible people into our lives.
There comes a time when we have to set that fear loose. To realize that what is in front of us is worth the risk of pain; worth the risk of uncertainty. I don't want to miss out on something this great just because I am scared. I refuse to let fear get in the way.

Our Transgressions

"For He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."(Isaiah 53:12)
This verse hit me hard today. Because of our downfalls...because of our sinful hearts, Christ had to come and be destroyed for our sake. He loves us so much that he entered the chaos of our sinful nature inorder to save us from our mess. You see, sin is living for yourself. In sin, we put what we want ahead of the glory and the plan of Almighty God. Christ didn't just save us from eternity in hell, but rather He saved us from ourselves. We hit the preverbal "self-destruct" button by choosing to walk away from Him, and yet He died for us. He didn't just die so that we could be forgiven of our sins, but rather He died to rescue us from them.

Control

I've often seen Christians with bumpers stickers that read, "God is my co-pilot", but I find something terribly wrong with this. You see, the role of a co-pilot is one that sits next to the actual pilot and is there to provide assistance whenever the pilot asks for it. He is an assistant. I thought to myself, since when has God become our assistant pilot? However, that is when I realized that I've been guilty of putting God as my co-pilot.

You see, I am the type of person that likes to have a plan for everything. When I start something new, or set off on an endeavor, I like to have a plan. How is this going to look? What is going to happen? I like to have a timeline. Knowing all of these things helps me to feel comfortable. By knowing what is going to happen, and when it is going to happen, I feel a sense of comfort. However, when I am not in control, and when I do not know when or how something is going to happen, I start to get uncomfortable. I get nervous. 

It's not that I don't trust God as my pilot; I know that He is going to get me where I need to be. I also know that He will get me to the best spot at the best time. He knows what He is doing, and His way is by far the best way of doing things. I just wish He could fill me in on what He is doing. 

Then again, this isn't how God works. He doesn't fill us in on every aspect of His plan, and He doesn't have to. It is our job to just sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. 

The road ahead may look scary, and not knowing can be one of the most intimidating you will ever encounter, but our fear and our doubt do not limit the power and majesty of our Creator. One of the things that I have been learning lately is that I don't have to understand every aspect of God's plan in order for me to know that His plan is still good.