Your Life Is Happening All Around You
Sometimes, we find ourselves in a stall pattern. We don't think that where we are is where we should be, and so we pine and we wane and we dream of greener grass.
But the truth is that you were always meant to be right where you are. It's something I firmly believe in, and something that has made the difference in understanding the universe around me.
For a long time, I fought to change everything and everyone around me. I was fairly zealous in my twenties, after I experienced something pretty profound and spiritual in the basement of my Guelph apartment. I thought this new awakening was what other people needed, and for a time, I pushed my beliefs on friends, strangers and anyone around me. I led worship. I raised my hands to try and experience God. I even did something called 'random evangelism'. Pretty strange stuff.
Although I'm still a big fan and follower of Jesus, I don't really see the importance of church now, but I see the merits of it in my formative years. I made some great friends - some of my best friends in churches and at spiritual camps. And I view things through a bit of a rose coloured lens now - and I understand that it was important for me to begin to see beyond myself. To pray. To heed words and to listen to others and shut up. To look outside of this self-obsessed, ego-stroking North American culture and see that solitude was achievable. To serve others - as best I can. To help and to be be kind.
And now, as I push into my latter thirties, I still haven't arrived at any sort of spiritual destination - but at the very least, I have an open mind.
If you had told me two years ago that I would become such close friends with the people that I'm close to now, I wouldn't have believed you. Would anyone? Would I have seen myself working at a Christmas tree farm for hours on end on bitterly cold beautiful days? Or building warehouse bins at a lumber yard? Noway. Our lives unfold in a pretty unbelievable majesty and mystery, and it's pretty damn cool to watch.
And I see now that it's all happening around me - all of the time. And there is beauty in that.
