Moments.

As most of the world knows by now, a false alert was pushed out to cellphones across the state of Hawaii last Saturday morning warning of an incoming ballistic missile. Panic ensued for nearly half an hour before we were all assured this was a mistake and there was no real threat. But I’ll be honest, Aaron and I were never worried. While the rest of the state was thinking they were about to die, we were sitting on the couch, cozy, drinking coffee, probably scrolling Instagram. And this isn’t because we’re just steady, calm people, not prone to panic and worry (do you know me at all?) -  we just didn’t get the alert on our phones. We were absolutely oblivious until my friend sent this text:

When I opened Twitter to see that no major news outlets were reporting it, and we never heard any sirens – which were tested as recently as December – our original theory was that someone made the graphic as a joke (a terrible joke, by the way). But then a couple of minutes later, a Hawaii news station I follow retweeted Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard saying the threat was false. So that was it. There was no point in time where Aaron or I ever thought the threat was real.

But as the news started pouring out about the alert, we quickly realized how it affected everyone around us. Saturday night we were at a bonfire with friends and nearly the only topic of conversation was the false missile alert. Did you get the alert? Where were you? What did you do? Several friends drove to a military base. Others saw people running toward Diamond Head for shelter. Another watched as frantic tourists bombarded helpless police officers. 9-1-1 lines were jammed. People were scared for their lives. I know that had we received the alert I would have probably lost it. Goodbye, emotional stability! Farewell, sanity!

I don’t know how often you all think about death, but I think about it a lot. I’m not trying to be morbid or anything, but I just feel like I think about it more often than the average person. It might have something to do with the fact that I lived next to a cemetery for seven years. You can’t escape thinking about it when everyday there is a new plot of dry earth dug up near your parking lot. Last Saturday, a lot more people were thinking about their death, and probably in that span of 30 minutes, the whole of their lives and whether or not they did it right. This is so cliché – I know that. But the truth is a lot of people thought they had 15 minutes to live on Saturday. A lot of people were running for their lives, trying to figure out how to protect their children and themselves. A lot of people were resigned to the fact that it was over. And that's when you start to think about your life.

While we were home in Nebraska, we recently heard a sermon on Ecclesiastes. Solomon, the writer of this particular book of the Bible, was the richest man in the world. He had everything – you name it, he had it, and if he didn’t have it, he could get it in overwhelming abundance. Even still, at the end of it all, he looked back and thought it was all worthless. It meant nothing. All the wealth and prestige and stuff he had accumulated was garbage. So in light of his revelations, the focus of the sermon was on living for the moments that matter. Making our lives count. It's not about possessions and money and power. It's about not missing moments with our people. Not giving our lives over to bitterness, anger, addictions, feeling like a victim, being a slave to our pasts, but instead moving onward and forward and not missing the life that’s happening right now, in front of us, today. Moments that we’ll never get back. Moments we’ll never experience again.

I’ve missed a lot of moments in my life. I know I have because I was wasting my life wishing to go back and make choices over again. Wishing my life hadn’t gone the way it did. Wishing away all that I had been given with an ungrateful heart, nursing my wounds and remembering all the ways I had been wronged. I missed moments with family and friends. I missed opportunities. I missed them because of stored up hurt and anger and bitterness. I missed them because I was striving for what I thought life should be instead of living in the reality of what was. 

I wish I wouldn’t have _________. 
My life would be different if only _________.
My life would be better if __________.

Do you ever rehearse your answers to these kinds of statements? Mentally fill them in whenever you're reminded of a certain person or scenario or life event? Use them as an excuse for where you are in your life? I used to spend a lot of time on these kinds of thoughts – imagining these kinds of scenarios. Meanwhile, my real life was passing me by. In her first book, Cold Tangerines, Shauna Niequist highlights this idea perfectly – about life and moments and not living in the past. Because we can rehash our stories and look back at our choices or the choices made for us by other people and see our narrative as tragedy, or we can move forward with forgiveness and grace and love – for others and for ourselves, realizing that we'll never get our moments back again. Shauna calls this kind of thing letting them off the hook. She has a whole essay about it in her book. She writes,

“When I’m trying to forgive someone, I picture myself physically lifting that person off a big hook, like in a cartoon. I never want to. I prefer to stew and focus my anger on them like a laser pointer and wish them illnesses and bad skin. I hope that they will get fat and people will talk behind their backs and their toilets will overflow and their computers will crash. I work on my anger toward them like I’m working on a loose tooth with my tongue, back and forth… “

But there comes a point when you have to let all that go – when you have to let that go so you stop missing your life. So maybe today you need to let someone off the hook for all the ways they wronged you – and I’m not talking to you if you are currently in a situation where someone is wronging you – abusing you in some way, physically harming you – you DO NOT let those people off the hook. You tell on them and you get help. But I am talking to you if you are hanging on to the past in some way. If you’re letting bitterness and anger tell your story. If your whole life is seen through a lens of, “Yeah, but my life would be better if ______.” I’ll never forget what my dad said to me one time, “Life moves fast. Don’t wish it away.” Don't wish it away! Not parts of it. Not whole chapters. Not current circumstances while you wait for the next thing. I'm here to tell you that one minute you're 21 thinking you have all the time in the world and then you're 33 and you're wondering where time went and my dad is 58 now and he feels the same way and now I sound like that Five for Fighting song. But your life is right now. Let yourself off the hook. Mentally pick yourself up off that hook every single day if you have to so that you don’t waste your life and miss the moments happening today all around you. Let your parents off the hook. Let your ex off the hook. Let your kids or your neighbor or whoever wronged you off the hook so you can move forward and live the one life you've been given. 

Faced with our own mortality, like many felt here on Saturday morning, do you really want to look at the whole of your life and feel like you missed it? Wasted it? Watched it go by while you worked on your anger and bitterness like a loose tooth? Sacrificed your family and friends on the altar of power and prestige? I don’t. I want to get to the end and know I gave out every ounce of love and grace and forgiveness I could possibly muster. I want to make a career out of letting people off the hook. I don’t want to miss any more moments - any laughs or smiles or opportunities to be an encourager, a comforter, a hug. I want to live each day in all its sweetness and difficulty and trial and triumph. I want to feel each moment and squeeze the life out of it. Capture it in my heart, undistracted by the past, laser-focused on all that's ahead. So that when it is my time to head on home to glory, I don't feel like I missed it all.

In another essay in Cold Tangerines, Shauna writes,

“Today is your big moment. Moments, really. The life you’ve been waiting for is happening all around you.... This is life in all its glory, swirling and unfolding around us, disguised as pedantic, pedestrian non-events. But pull of the mask and you will find your life, waiting to be made, chosen, woven, crafted. 

Your life, right now, today, is exploding with energy and power and detail and dimension, better than the best movie you have ever seen. You and your family and your friends and your house and your dinner table and your garage have all the makings of a life of epic proportions, a story for the ages. Because they all are. Every life is. 

You have stories worth telling, memories worth remembering, dreams worth working toward, a body worth feeding, a soul worth tending, and beyond that, the God of the universe dwells within you, the true culmination of super and natural. 

You are more than dust and bones. 
You are spirit and power and image of God. 
And you have been given Today.” 

Life moves fast. Don't wish it away. It'll be gone in a moment. Don't miss it.

Lessons.

I turned 33 two weeks ago. It didn’t really feel all that significant, but for some reason I suddenly had these things on my heart that I wanted to share – things I’ve learned in my 33 years – or more honestly just the last three to four years, because I don’t know what my twenties were but a mess of hustling to be seen and loved. Anyway, that’s another story for another time. This is just a short list of lessons that maybe by my sharing, you will understand sooner than I did. They’re not groundbreaking and I’m saying the same types of things others have said in one hundred other ways, but they say you need to hear something seven to fifteen times before it sinks in so maybe this is will be your seventh.

Scrap the timeline. I mean it – throw it away. I was thirty when I finally got rid of my mental “should be” list. You know, “I should be married by now.” “I should own a house by now.” “I should be out of debt by now.” That list. Throw it away. Set it on fire and stop letting it control you. Who created that timeline anyway? Live the life you were given – it’s happening today, all around you so give up on “should be”. There’s nothing you “should be” doing – no mile markers to reach, no deadlines to meet. Holding yourself to fictitious standards will only leave you sad and lonely and desperate. No two stories are the same. Live yours – not someone else’s. I got married at 32 and if I would have been married at 22 like I always thought I “should be” well, yikes. The many single years I had prepared me for my story right now and I’m thankful for it.

Turn off social media. There was a point a couple of years ago where I could not look at Pinterest for another second. It made me stressed out, sad, and feeling left behind. I wanted to have a beautiful house and make amazing meals, and love my husband well, and do crafts with my kids, but the problem was, I lived in an apartment, I was cooking for one, I didn’t have a husband and I certainly had no children. The comparison game will eat you alive. It happens on Pinterest and Instagram and Facebook and sometimes the best thing you can do is shut them off. This is especially true if you are already feeling sad for some reason or another. Look up from the screen. Take a deep breath. Curate the details of the life you do have rather than the one you wish you had. And I don’t hate social media – I’m on it a lot. But exercise good judgement and listen to your heart when you feel like you need a break.

Go to bed. The other best thing you can do sometimes is just go to bed. It’s midnight and you’re up browsing the internet or refreshing your feed for the thousandth time, looking at what other people are doing, or looking at things you shouldn’t, or you’re out at a place you shouldn’t be, when instead, you just need to go to bed and start fresh in the morning. There’s something about the morning that makes everything feel better. Sometimes the holiest thing you can do is just rest. Sleep. And let his mercies be new every morning as he promises. My mom used to tell us, “Nothing good happens after midnight,” and the older I get, the more truth that holds. We rationalize in the dark of night, we believe lies more easily, we let anxiety tear us apart, we get into things we shouldn't. Stop. Go home and go to bed.

Stay humble. You’re not better than anyone else. Repeat that to yourself right now if you have to. I’m not even sorry to be this blunt – you’re just not. There is something to be learned from everyone, every single person you meet. I don’t care if you’re the best in your field, if you’re the LeBron James of your industry, you’re still not better than everyone else. You’re a human – just beautiful dust – with failures and weaknesses and strengths and triumphs. Admit your failures. Embrace your weaknesses. Be vulnerable. Let others in.  Drop the act. Let go of the mask. And if you think I’m not talking to you, I’m definitely talking to you. We put on such a show of self-righteousness sometimes and it’s gross. There is always something to be learned from our friends and neighbors and people around us if only we let them in. The sooner you realize this, the more freedom you will walk in.

Create a routine. Our bodies run on rhythms and seasons. We were made for them. Just like the day fades to night and into day again on a set path, in a regular pattern, our bodies and minds were made for routines. Create rhythms for your life. If this means getting up at the same time every day, going to bed at the same time, creating a nighttime ritual, going on a daily walk, creating space for specific things you do each season, whatever it means for you. Create a routine that works for you. You will feel more steady and stable and grounded.

Work on your fitness. You will be amazed at how your body feels if you just go for a walk and breathe some fresh air. Stop letting your scrolling thumbs get all the exercise and move your legs. I know that when I’m in a bad headspace, it’s usually because I need to go workout and let endorphins flood those blank, dark corners of my mind.

Do the next thing. I was easily overwhelmed in school, which is funny because school was actually fairly easy for me, but every first day when I would get the syllabus, it about threw me into a panic looking at all the work we had to do. So I’d be scrambling at the kitchen counter and flipping through all the stuff I had to do and my mom said to me one day, “Just do the next thing.” Whatever that next thing is, stop and focus on that one thing. Stop thinking about all the things at once. Do the next thing and then the next after that. I find this is good in any kind of anxiety or worry situation. I’ve had to tell myself a lot over the last couple months – rather than feel homesick and wallow in my feelings, I’ve had to just do the next thing. Clean the house. Go to the grocery store. Make the bed. Run the errand. Rather than let circumstances overwhelm, confuse, or worry you, just do the next thing and the next and the next.

Say it. John Mayer had it right back in 2006 when he sang, “Say what you need to say.” I’ve told you before to use your words, but I’m saying it again because it's worth repeating. I think this especially applies to dating. We hold back a lot of times because we think, “Gosh, I don’t want to say that. What if he/she doesn’t like me?” Well, then golly, if they don’t like you over that thing you want to say, wouldn’t you want to know now and move on before you get in deeper? Or at what point will it be a good time to start speaking your true feelings instead of holding back? A year from now? Once you both think you’re in love and then suddenly you’re speaking truth and the other person is like, “Wait, where is this coming from? Who are you?” Yikes. Start honest. Start truthful. Say what you need to say and then they’ll never be able to say they didn’t know.

Let it hurt. I listened to a sermon one time where he quoted Blaise Pascal who said, “All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views... This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.” We all seek our own joy, and in the same vein, we will do whatever we can to avoid pain. We don’t want anything to hurt. We don’t want to be sad. We don’t want to cry. It’s why we don’t end relationships that need to be ended. We don’t address and deal with the past. We avoid, stuff, hide and run from anything that might feel a little ouchy.  I realized at one point in my life that I was afraid to feel heartbreak. I didn’t want to feel it again. I didn’t want it to swallow me whole like it did the first time. So I stayed in a relationship and let it drag me through the mud until one day, I’ll never forget, I just thought to myself, “Well, I guess it’s going to hurt. And it’s going to suck for a little while. But I will live.” I had to admit that it was going to hurt and I would probably cry. But it would not kill me. Deal with your pain. Let it hurt. Walk through it with someone else. Let them be there for you. On the other side of that temporary pain is the whole rest of your life.

Serve. We all know the saying that it’s better to give than to receive, but are you putting that into action? Over the course of my 33 years I’ve served in youth ministry, on the sermon transcription team, at the hospital, at a coffee shop, and in an English language learners program and each of them enriched my life in a different way. There’s something about taking the focus off of yourself and giving your time, your talents, your gifts and abilities to help enrich the lives of others that will bring you great joy.

Be grateful. We are expert complainers. I know I am. It’s the default position of my heart some days and it takes a conscious effort to stop complaining and start being thankful. If you find yourself in a downward spiral of complaining, stop your heart in its tracks and declare five things you’re thankful for immediately.

Open the door. I know that it takes a lot of work to have people over and open your home and maybe you feel like it’s not perfect or it’s not as nice as so-and-so’s house but often I’ve seen that people just want a place to come and relax and simply be. I have a couple of friends that are so good at this – opening their home and their hearts and making everyone and anyone feel welcome. We’re all looking for a place to belong. We all want community. Maybe it starts with you simply opening the door. As Myquillan Smith says, “It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.”

Call your family. They won’t always be there. I lost my grandpa earlier this year and it’s amazing how often that still gets to me and at the most random times. So call your mom or your dad or text your brother or your sister or your friend that feels like family and let them know that you love them - that you’re thankful they’re part of your story. We get so caught up in ourselves that we do a bad job of letting people know how we feel. We need to say I love you a lot more often.

Stop keeping secrets. Duplicity will kill you. It will tangle up your feet, eat away at your sanity and steal the years of your life. Whatever it is – drag it into the light by speaking it. Stop living a secret life. No one is cut out for that kind of pressure. If someone ever says to you, “Don’t tell,” telling is likely the very first thing you should do. Not always – but more often than not. If there’s something weighing you down that you don’t think anyone else will accept about you, well then see below.

See a counselor. Counseling changed my life in unending ways. It will help you see your story through a different lens and with more clarity. A counselor can help you talk through things you didn’t think would ever leave your tongue. There’s something about sharing it all out loud that helps it all feel more tangible and real and gives you the tools to help you handle it whether it’s a past or present situation. Seeing a counselor is not for the weak - it's for those who value being the most healthy version of themselves. 

Consider Jesus. Beth Moore tweeted the other day that if you’re drowning in cynicism, maybe it’s time you heed the words of Hebrews 3:1 and “…consider Jesus…” I know I write around it a lot and hint at it and nudge you toward it in some veiled ways, but I really think the best thing you can do for yourself at 23 or 93 is decide where you’re at with Jesus. When you’ve tried everything else and you’re still coming up empty-handed on why we’re here and what our purpose is in this life or how to handle all the messed up things in the world, well then, maybe it’s time you consider Jesus. I just finished reading The Reason for God by Tim Keller and it’s for every person who has ever doubted or wondered or felt skeptical – so what I mean to say is that it’s for everyone and perhaps will be your starting point for considering Jesus.

Maybe this is the place where I should finish with more lighthearted things like, Listen to more Taylor Swift, Eat the brownie, Buy a good dry texture spray, or Play more Scattergories. While I do believe those things, especially the part about a texture spray, I'll just leave it here for now. 

With love from my 33 year old heart, 

L