Get up.

Probably one of the hardest lessons to learn in life is to take responsibility for your actions, and your own outcome. As much as someone may have hurt you, as much as life may have smacked you around at the end of the day if you let those things determine where you are and where you are going its like closing your eyes and trusting the things or people that hurt you to lead you safely through a minefield.

You will basically get blown up repeatedly and after it happens rather then get up and get out you go right back to closing your eyes. "That would not have happened if ____ ", "if only ____ life would be better", "if ____ would just listen", "I can't because ____ will say or do ____" or "they did this to me".

"They did this to me"...

Some things are genuinely out of our control, and sometimes really awful things happen, people do really awful things and they truly are to blame for what they did. They are to blame for the hurt, the pain they caused, and healing takes time, but there comes a point where healing has kinda maxed out. There comes a point where you have to choose to get up and walk, or sit in that place of "not quite over it" and rot in the fact that "they did this to me".

I am very guilty of choosing to rot in the mindset of the victim, choosing to hold on because moving on and letting go meant I had to own my thoughts and feelings rather then pin them on the time I was screamed at or on the people that took advantage. It even meant I had to forgive. In those moments in those situations I was the victim. Those things were not my fault, but the enemy loves to watch me wallow, and misery loves company (and is extremely good at finding it). So it is so easy to sit there and blame and let weeks, months, years, lifetimes blow away because I was too stuck in the its not my fault to get up and walk out of the lie that others determine my direction. And that was my fault.

So, through life, through all the hard, painful parts of life. Through all the awful things people do. Through all of the inescapable situations. Through the loss, the heartache, the worry, the dispar, through all of anything. As hard as those things may be, as easy as it is to just sit and let that be our identity, as much as the enemy loves to come help us morn the loss of our joy, peace, and hope, we say "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." And that is greater.

To wrap this up I say this to myself and anyone who need to hear it, get up. Get up. Take responsibility for your life and what you are choosing to focus on. Stop letting this world be where you find your identity because the only identity this world has to offer is a sad, lonely, hopeless existence, where nothing matters, nothing lasts, every this world has to offer is meaningless. We are called to be apart from this world because in God's eyes we are precious and he is just waiting for us to let go of the hand that is leading us to be hurt again, cast our cares upon him, and follow him in righousness. And it's a tall order because we are human, but if is a rewarding and fulfilling, and one that he will guide us through. We are not alone.

Get up and walk, live life more abundantly, find your identity and worth in someone who loves you and will never let you down.

“Birds sing after a storm. Why shouldn’t people feel as free to delight in whatever sunlight remains to them?”—Rose Kennedy