I Don't Believe You

"You're a disappointment."

"You'll never be loved."

"You'll never amount to more than this."

"You'll never achieve your dreams."

"You'll never be smart/pretty/good enough."

"You're not worth the time/energy."

Words hurt. Worse than words told by others are the lies we tell ourselves. These attacks on our spirits have the ability to crumble our very foundations and when we are at our lowest we not only believe them, we add to them and we attempt to make them become our very identity. When asked if I believe that spiritual warfare is real I can firmly say yes as I witness the increasing amount of suicide and self-harm in our nation. My own brother has fallen victim to that pain and it breaks my heart. I cannot say that I am immune. The lies I began with are all things that I have believed of myself. With a single glance or word I watch my own walls crumble around me. These lies are thrown at me daily and in their way they are the most obvious, but other lies follow us as well. A week ago I went to a concert and afterwards I was talking to the singer (Greg Holden) about wanting to move to India. He had recently visited and advised against it simply because of the poor conditions. "I want to go to help." I told him and he smiled. "We were fortunate enough to be born in the wealthy west, " he said. "It's our obligation to help those who weren't." He's right. We believe the lies that as long as we aren't causing more problems we aren't hurting those around us but our silence is just as painful as our words. By not acting we are making the choice to let others fall to the wayside. I watch as we claim to know love and to follow Christ, but when I see the way we treat each other, the way we treat ourselves--and I am not exempt from this. I am equally guilty--it has to break God's heart. We use words flippantly. We tell people they are not worth our time. We tell them by our actions if not by our actual words. We tell those who are starving that we cannot spare a few dollars or a few hours of our time because we would rather watch Netflix and drink that extra coffee at Starbucks. Is that really the story we want to tell? We rush through the beautiful moments of life to indulge in the very things that are truly meaningless. How often do we rush a hug with someone we love because we are running late? Or neglect to answer a phone call because we just cannot spare the second. I am tired of living my life this way, hurrying as the most amazing things pass me by. I have always been the person who took the time to read a book or marvel at a sunrise, but somewhere down the line I got distracted. I let life overwhelm me. I pray this changes. I pray today is a start of a new era in my life. Thank you God for taking the time to bring me back--to slow me down. Life is far too beautiful to rush through. It is too wonderful to not love the people around us. To not love this gift of a world we have been given. To become so blinded by ourselves and the lies that the world feeds to us that we miss the truths that God has whispered into our very souls.
If you had the time to read this...I pray you will take another few moments to just reflect on all of the beauty around you and to thank God for it because He is worthy of our praise.