This lovely video from the Black Keys never fails to make me laugh. In that vein, happy February – it’s my favorite month!
Author Archives: thecharalife
NYE
Faithfulness. That’s the word that I would use to most accurately sum up my 2013. Every single experience I’ve had this year, whether a high or low, has been especially memorable as I think back on many of them because I’ve realised that God’s mercies – or in other words, His constant faithfulness – have been increasingly abundant in my life this past year. He hasn’t been more or less faithful than before, but I think I’ve grown to appreciate the simple things in my life that truly capitalize on His daily faithfulness. I could reflect on the “big” things in my life – like finding a job after graduation for my gap year – or the “small” things – like the fall afternoon where the rain in the sky miraculously held off from pouring down until seconds after I returned home from running – but either way, His faithfulness shines through. I can’t think of one encounter I’ve had this year where God’s immense faithfulness hasn’t been at work in my life, and it makes me so incredibly excited to continue to do life with Him guiding me in the new year.
This song, Great is Your Mercy, is taking it old school (I seriously adore the fact that it’s 10 minutes long…if you know me, you know I love abnormally-long songs) – it’s one of those classic church songs where the same sentiments are sung repeatedly by different people. But the way each person articulates the same message is profound in my eyes. I can almost feel how greatly each person has experienced God’s faithfulness in their own personal, varying situations through the way they express each word in song. That’s how God’s faithfulness is as well. We each experience it, whether knowingly or not, and it impacts us in different ways based on where we are in life. The difference comes with how we respond to it. I’ve seen myself be completely ignorant of how faithful God has been in certain past situations, because my eyes have been focused on circumstances, rather than above. I pray that in the new year, I can continue to respond to God’s faithfulness just as the people above vocalising “Great is Your mercy towards me” have: with fresh eyes and a humble, grateful heart.
Happy New Year! 2014 is sure to be a spectacular adventure.
Special
These past few weeks, I’ve read and seen various incarnations of a concept that is best summed up in an article I read in early September from the Huffington Post. The article’s subject – Why Generation Y Yuppies are Unhappy – mainly focuses on our generation’s unhappiness in the workplace, and is delved into throughout the proceeding paragraphs, formulas, and diagrams. Ultimately, it concludes that my generation is unhappy (referred to as GYPSYs, or Gen Y Protagonists & Special Yuppies) because we’ve been raised to believe that we are spectacularly special by our Baby Boomer parents. Problems arise when we get out into the “real world”, entering it with “a sense of optimism and unbounded possibility” as a result of our childhoods. One might ask: isn’t an optimistic attitude a good thing in the world? Well, in this case, that optimism supposedly sets us GYPSYs up for colossal disappointment. Because, when our new jobs end up being less fulfilling than we expected, or we end up not snagging the title of “standout co-worker” in the office (namely, we end up being much less “special” than we were led to believe as children), we become unhappy with the reality of our lives falling much shorter than our expectations. To make it worse, that unhappiness can be compounded with the comparisons our generation tends to make between ourselves and acquaintances’ fabricated lives on social media.
Though the author hits upon multiple other points, the unhappiness-in-the-job-market angle stood out the most to me. Now, at first I was slight angry; I mean, what kind of article was this to tell me that I wasn’t special?
“I certainly am one of the few that are actually special,” I grumbled to myself while reading the article. I instantly wanted to write down all the indignant thoughts flowing through my head. But then I decided to take a step back, and spend some moments pointedly thinking on what the article was professing. After objectively looking at the article’s points, I had to say that I did agree with some of them – truthfully, it can be detrimental to compare one’s activities to those seen on social media, because comparisons lead to discontent; and I did agree with the admonition near the end of the article that our generation should never lose our ambition in our life’s pursuits. Continue reading
The Wait
Our generation is not about the wait. Many would say, why wait? Instant gratification is everywhere – with food, technology, even relationships.
As customers, we want to be served faster, quicker, now.
People who take their time in certain situations are seen as slackers or less motivated than others.
And when it comes down to it, it seems that speed is even written into the world’s framework, with the seasons sprinting by – a fact brought all too easily to my attention as I’m (already) enjoying the beautiful fall weather during my lunch breaks.
And so I’m left to wonder, what’s the essence of waiting?
For myself, so many things in the world interest me, and I get quite antsy being in the same place for awhile – whether mentally or physically. Sometimes, I find myself wanting to learn so much in so little time because I want to advance to a next stage that I’ll find more interesting that the whole ordeal becomes overwhelming (example: learning Spanish). Continue reading
Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)
It was a very rainy, beautiful start to Labor Day today, so when I woke up, I was immediately reminded of this song that I heard in the background while at church yesterday. Oceans, and the rest of the Zion CD, was released by Hillsong United earlier in the year (on my birthday!), and it’s one of the more well-known songs on this CD, but I hadn’t really taken the time to listen to the words and engage with it in worship. From the very first words, to the bridge of the song, I felt it as a true prayer of my heart. Talking about the worldwide response to the song, the band members express how this song applies to us all, no matter where we are in life, whether it be questioning who God is, or walking with God for years. It’s all the same basic situation: we come to places in life where we have to step out in faith, “the great unknown”, because God always wants to take us deeper in Him and do crazy things in this world with our lives.
You called me out upon the waters
The great unknown, where feet may fail..
..Your grace abounds in deepest waters
Your sovereign hand will be my guide
Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me
You’ve never failed and You won’t start now..
..Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith would be made stronger in the presence of my Saviour…