almost four years ago i graduated from jbu. i came out of the university a changed person, probably not in the way the school intended, but changed none-the-less.
i left jbu with my eyes opened. i graduated with a better sense of {my} beliefs and {my} ideologies. i also left jbu realizing there is so much more to this world than what i saw and experienced as a child from a middle-class, caucasian household. there is hunger, pain, homelessness, poverty, innocence, destruction. there is not enough forgiveness, not enough grace, not enough humility, not enough generosity, not enough intentionality, not enough passion.
{for everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. eccles 3:1}
almost three years ago i bought this house. i love this house. more than loving this house, i have happily watched the value of this house increase tremendously, something i never understood prior to being a homeowner. for once, i invested in something smart…in a smart neighborhood and all that good stuff.
these two events were huge in my life. since then, i have felt like i’m on an educational {emotional} rollar coaster. i feel like the universe is throwing trial after trial at me.
{a time to be born and a time to die. a time to plant and a time to harvest. eccles 3:2}
in the last three years people returned from my past and new people have arrived. many people, many, many people left my life. i finally grieved for my brother and what his death meant and what his death didn’t mean. the last three years have been hard. they have been filled with laughter and loss, support and betrayal, successes and failures.
i have opened my home, opened my heart, opened my mind. i have put myself out there. i have put my ideologies and my personality out there. i have loved deeply. not just a significant other, but my friends, my family, my housemates, my neighbors. i love with all of my heart and soul and mind.
{a time to kill and a time to heal. a time to tear down and a time to build up. eccles 3:3}
i have always, always said my childhood, my experiences, my family has made me who i am. it made me stronger. it made me passionate. it made me determined. inspite of anything and everything, i have always been optimistic. i AM optimistic.
i have faith in humanity. i believe in the good of people. i believe that despite everything, most people have the best of intentions.
{a time to cry and a time to laugh. a time to grieve and a time to dance. eccles 3:4}
but these last three years have shaken my beliefs. it has shaken my core. it has made me question my optimism. made me question my passion. made me doubt my faith and belief in humanity and its good. made me question what the heck is wrong with this world.
this is a broken world. this world is flawed. i don’t understand humanity.
i am not religious, but i am spiritual. from my bible days, my favorite bible verse was always ecclesiastes 3:1-3:8. as i feel disappointed about life, this verse keeps ringing through my head.
{a time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. a time to embrace and a time to turn away. eccles 3:5}
as i try to reshape my mentality and tear down the block that my heart and mind have started to build…i have to remind myself that my problems are so small. so minor and insignificant. so what if i have lost friends. so what if i trusted and allowed people into my heart and home. so what if my trust and faith and love and passion have been abused and misused. so what if people were selfish. so what?! my problems are miniscule.
{a time to search and a time to quit searching. a time to keep and a time to throw away. eccles 3:6}
ya’ll, there are people in this world who are starving. there are parents who can not afford to feed their children tonight. there are families who are homeless. they live under bridges, in tents, in cars, in boxes and in allyways and on street corners. they don’t have a home to open up to someone else. they don’t have to worry about friends that aren’t living up to their expectations of what a friend should be. they are just trying to survive. there are people who are thirsty. not, i just drink a whole bottle of soda and now i am thirsty, thirsty. they are really thirsty. they don’t have clean water to drink. to bathe in. to cook with. they are thirsty.
ya’ll. there are children, and mothers, and fathers, and husbands, and wives, and parents that are abused. they are mentally abused. they are physically abused. they don’t feel safe in their homes. their homes. think about it, when was the last time you didn’t feel safe in your home.
ya’ll, there are children that are orphans. there are babies that will never be held. they will never be comforted. they will never know compassion and unconditional love of their parents. there are toddlers that have lost their mothers. there are toddlers that aren’t eating. there are toddlers that aren’t talking. there are toddlers that aren’t thriving. look at your toddler, can you imagine who they would be without love, without compassion, without patience, without teaching. no, you probably can’t.
there are children without someone to celebrate with them, to encourage them, to believe in them. there are teenagers without someone to accept them when hormones have them going crazy. teenagers that have been in foster care, group homes or orphanages for all of their life. teenagers that have given up the hope they will find someone who wants them. there are teenagers about to age out of a broken, overcrowded, under-funded, ignored system. teenagers that will never have a place to call home. {if} they make it to college, they won’t have a mom to call when college gets hard, they won’t have a dad to get advice from, they won’t have a home or a family to spend breaks with. they will age out of a system that doesn’t allow for grace, doesn’t allow for understanding, doesn’t allow for growth or mistakes.
{a time to tear and a time to mend. a time to be quiet and a time to speak. eccles 3:7}
there are soldiers fighting for our freedom. there are soldiers fighting for the freedom of others. there are soldiers fighting and sacrificing…and dying. the are soldiers who survive and come home to a country, a world, they no longer understand, know, or fit into. there are soldiers that come home broken. physically. mentally. emotionally. broken and scarred. there are soldiers who have given up everything so that we don’t have to give up anything. those soliders have family. mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, wives, husbands, children. those families sacrifice their time, their time with their soldier.
there is a world – our world. a huge, beautiful, incredible, amazing world. this world, it relies on us. it relies on us to care for it. to respect it. to nurture it. to allow it to grow. to encourage it to thrive. there is a world that we are selfishly destroying. there is a world that is changing because we use and use and use and use. we don’t give back. we just take.
{a time to love and a time to hate. a time for ware and a time for peace. eccles 3:8}
my problems are so small. my problems are so insignificant. my problems don’t really matter. but, somedays, sometimes, my problems feel huge and make a big impact on my heart. on my mind. on my emotions. tonight, my heart hurts. for all that i am sad for me, and for all i am sad for this world.