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Living Life to the Fullest

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In the quiet of a cave, God spoke to Elijah; in the stillness of the night, He came to Samuel.

It is in those quiet moments when God expands our awareness to live life to its fullest. But what does it mean to live life to its fullest?

Living life is a journey.

It is the time we have at our disposal every day. It is the clouds and grey skies as well as the moments of sunshine, beauty, and harmony. Every day we meld it all together for good.

It’s waging war while searching for peace.

If we spent all our time thinking about the future, we would miss today. If we dwelt on the past, we would remain frozen in time, stuck in the ruts of yesterday.

Life gives us opportunity – each day – each hour – each minute – to choose how we respond to whatever we are facing.

We decide what we will do with what we have been given. Sometimes we need to yell and scream and rail against the unfairness of it all.

“Why me?!” isn’t just a cry of self-pity, but a wounded spirit trying to understand and reconcile life’s indiscriminate offering.

But then we move on. Life is where we take the pieces that are broken and with God’s help, create a new picture, using them to construct a large collage of what we can accomplish.

“When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence. Bow in prayer. Don’t ask questions. Wait for hope to appear. Don’t run from troubles. Take it full-face. The ‘worst’ is never the worst.”

—Lamentations 3:28-30, The Message

We are a montage of good and evil and our challenge is to seek the good and let go of the evil; let go of the desire to return hate with hate, revenge, and retribution instead of forgiveness and understanding.

What is life? It is our existence.

Within that state of being, we have the opportunity to live life to capacity, to go beyond disappointments, and seek those moments of grace and wisdom and clarity.

How often we pray and then forget to apply the life tools we are given? Only remember to pray again when things go wrong, and we are up against a brick wall.

If our focus is only on tasks needed to be accomplished, life will pass us by, and we will miss the pleasures and struggles that inspire and energize.

woman praying on knees

I have discovered I need to come to God every day – sometimes every minute – to find the strength and courage I need to live through tough times. It is where I find resolve and motivation and truth. It is where my goals are clarified.

As I listen, I not only discover answers to my questions, but hear the questions God asks of me.

“God’s characteristic way of working is in quietness and through prayer… if we are conditioned to respond to noise and size, we will miss God’s word and action.”

—Introduction to Nahum, The Message

Life is an ongoing journey.

It is not just a set of rules to obey; yet we cannot live without guidelines. Without directives, we will constantly be trying to find the best way to live.

It’s not an “either/or.” It’s a blend, a balance, of what we ought to do and avoid doing. Even with carefully constructed roadmaps, life intervenes, and plans need to be altered.

It is a wilderness – a world of discovery and unexpected joys and devastating tragedies. We experience both exhilarating moments and naked and brutal truths that are revealed and gain valuable lessons from all of them.

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