I just spent a few minutes reading an old post from one of my favorite blogs. I got to thinking about really awesome people in this world and how cool it would be if they all could get together in the same place at the same time! I wondered how that would really go (would some of them clash, despite their awesomeness?)
Then I suddenly thought...am I awesome? I think I am just normal and that's fine most of the time, but I felt excluded from my imaginary awesome party and bummed at falling short of such great people. Then I thought, who is awesome? I know that to God I am awesome. He delights in the being He created and the good I strive to create with my life. So who all is awesome? According to my calculations, everyone God has created. Why? Because we are infinitely special and more than enough just because He made us. We are children of a perfect being and therefore all have the potential of perfection. And what is perfection, but awesome to the nth power! That doesn't mean that we aren't awesome until we are perfected. It just means that we have such tremendous potential. We can become the most incredible version of ourselves ever imaginable. And that is pretty cool.
So, to return to my original thought, what if all of the awesome people in the world could get together in the same place at the same time? That's what we are doing right now. It's called earth life. Mortality. Our "test." You name it, but here we are all together in this vast world sharing and learning and growing. Do we clash sometimes? Unfortunately yes. And not everyone is aware of or tapping into their own awesomeness. Though our value is incalculably the same, not everyone chooses to live in accordance with such a divine nature and therefore we face a lot of ugliness-distress-crime-hate and so on. There is also a being who is anti-awesomeness who will do anything to destroy the children of God and make them miserable like he is. How sad that so many are deceived into thinking his way really is better, that they will go farther, achieve more and find more happiness by stumbling down his corrupt paths. It simply isn't true. And it's not necessarily easier either, though it is made to appear that way.
That doesn't make God's plan easy either. Life is hard sometimes, that's a given. But it wasn't meant to be Easy Street. Oh, how nice that would be...or so we think. We don't learn the fastest when things are a breeze. That's chill time and it's nice when it happens. No, when we learn the fastest is when there's a curve ball headed straight at us and we have to think on our feet. When all around us is falling apart and we realize it's up to us to find a better way. And when we do, we grow. We grow so much through adversity that when we really look at it for what it is, we can't live well without it. Live, yes. No one dies of having plenty of food, perfect health, all the comforts of life, perpetual happiness, etc. But no one grows having all of those things either. And truly, we weren't just sent to earth to live. We could experience that in two seconds. Live. Breathe. Die. Check. We came here to learn and to grow. And growing hurts so much sometimes. Growing, stretching, healing, the process can be so painful and then so rewarding in the end. There is no way I would give back a single thing I have learned through my trials and challenges. That is hard-earned knowledge, credits added to my degree in Life. And I have a lot more to learn.
The thing about life is that it's not a set curriculum. There is no credit limit or minimum. What might be a four-year degree for some is a seventy-five year degree for others. And none of us know from the beginning how long ours will take. We are in it for the journey as much as the end result. So, what to take from my endless rambling today? Live life and appreciate it! Grab it by the horns and conquer each obstacle. Running from adversity will get you nowhere. Run into the face of it and show it what you are made of. Because I happen to know...
you are awesome.
