Repost of an amazing video story. If you’re feeling discouraged, worthless, depressed, self-conscious, or that others are better than you – watch this video! If you’re being/or have been bullied, teased, mocked, put down, belittled, verbally abused, slandered, verbally attacked, gossiped about, or given a difficult time — watch this!…but also seek help from a friendly and supportive source.
Shane Koyczan, the author of this video, was bullied a lot when he was a kid. So he took that pain and made this stunning video with the help of some amazingly talented people. It’s kind of breathtaking and powerful, just a warning. Also, it has a happy ending.
Several weeks ago, I had lunch with a friend I hadn’t seen in years. He had just turned eighty years old. His mind was as sharp as ever—witty, inquisitive, and focused. He was also a great listener. When he did speak, wisdom dripped from his lips like honey.
In a point of genuine humility but uncertainty he asked me, “Michael, do you think I have anything left to contribute? Are my best days over?” Tears welled up in his eyes.
I admit, his question caught me off-guard. I thought to myself, Here I am with one of the wisest men I have ever met. He is a living treasure. I would pay for the privilege of sitting at his feet and listening to his stories. And he is asking me whether or not he has anything left to contribute? I was flabbergasted.
I leaned in, grasped his hand with mine, and said, “Jimmy, listen to me carefully: your best days are ahead of you. I am not saying this just because I like you—and I do like you—but because it is the truth. I can prove it to you.”
I then began to make an argument that I first learned in The Noticer by Andy Andrews. In the book, Jones, the personification of wisdom, makes six points to Willow, a seventy-six year old lady, who had given up hope that she had anything left to contribute. (see chapter 6, pp. 83–85).
God has a purpose for every single person.
You won’t die until that purpose is fulfilled.
If you are still alive, then you haven’t completed what you were put on earth to do.
If you haven’t completed what you were put on earth to do, then your very purpose hasn’t been fulfilled.
If your purpose hasn’t been fulfilled, then the most important part of your life is still ahead.
You have yet to make your most important contribution.
Jones goes on to say, “If the most important part of your life is ahead of you, then even during the worst times, one can be assured that there is more laughter ahead, more success to look forward to, more children to teach and help, more friends to touch and influence. There is proof of hope … for more.” (p. 85)
My friend, Jimmy, sat back in his chair and was silent for a full minute. I could tell he was taking it all in. Finally, he said, “Then I better get busy. It sounds like I have a lot of work to do.”
You may be old. You may be sick. You may be divorced. Your kids may not be speaking to you. You may be out of work. You may be broke. You may be discouraged.
But you’re not dead yet. And that’s proof that you still have not completed what you were put on earth to do.
Happypizza: Here is an amazing collection of quotes on the subject of loneliness and solitude. Definitely worth a read, with some positive ways to look at the experience–and sometimes pain–of loneliness.
All humans are frightened of their own solitude. But only in solitude can we learn to know ourselves, learn to handle our own eternal aloneness.–Han Suyin
Be able to be alone. Lose not the advantage of solitude, and the society of thyself.–Thomas Browne
Being solitary is being alone well: being alone luxuriously immersed in doings of your own choice, aware of the fullness of your won presence rather than of the absence of others. Because solitude is an achievement.–Alice Koller
Do not rely completely on any other human being, however dear. We meet all life’s greatest tests alone.–Agnes Macphail
Each of us is alone in the world. It takes great courage to meet the full force of your aloneness. … When you face your aloneness, something begins to happen. Gradually, the sense of bleakness changes into a sense of true belonging. This is a slow and open-ended transition but it is utterly vital in order to come into rhythm with your own individuality. –John O’Donohue (Eternal Echoes: Celtic Reflections on Our Yearning to Belong)
I feel the same way about solitude as some people feel about the blessing of the church. It’s the light of grace for me. I never close my door behind me without the awareness that I am carrying out an act of mercy toward myself.–Peter Hoeg (Smilla’s Sense of Snow)
I learned…that inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness.–Brenda Ueland
I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.–Albert Einstein
I never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude.–Henry David Thoreau
Inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that’s where you renew your springs that never dry up.–Pearl S. Buck
Isolation is aloneness that feels forced upon you, like a punishment. Solitude is aloneness you choose and embrace. I think great things can come out of solitude, out of going to a place where all is quiet except the beating of your heart.–Jeanne Marie Laskas
It is not necessary that you leave the house. Remain at your table and listen. Do not even listen, only wait. Do not even wait, be wholly still and alone. The world will present itself to you for its unmasking . . . in ecstasy it will writhe at your feet.–Franz Kafka
It is well to be alone. It fertilizes the creative impulse.–Max Nordau
Language has created the word “loneliness” to express the pain of being alone, and the word “solitude” to express the glory of being alone.–Paul Johannes Tillich
Leisure is a form of silence, not noiselessness. It is the silence of contemplation such as occurs when we let our minds rest on a rosebud, a child at play, a Divine mystery, or a waterfall.–Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
Like water which can clearly mirror the sky and the trees only so long as its surface is undisturbed, the mind can only reflect the true image of the Self when it is tranquil and wholly relaxed.–Indra Devi
Man cannot survive without air, water and sleep. Next in importance comes food. And close on its heels, solitude.–Thomas Szasz
One must learn an inner solitude, where or with whomsoever he may be. He must learn to penetrate things and find God there, to get a strong impression of God firmly fixed on his mind.–Meister Eckhart
Only in quiet waters do thing mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.–Hans Margolius
Only when one is connected to one’s own core is one connected to others I am beginning to discover. And, for me, the core, the inner spring, can best be refound through solitude.–Anne Morrow Lindbergh (Gift from the Sea)
The person who has not learned to be happy and content while completely alone for an hour a day, or a week has missed life’s greatest serenity.–H. Clay Tate (Building a Better Home Town)
Solitude can be frightening because it invites us to meet a stranger we think we may not want to know–ourselves.–Melvyn Kinder
Solitude can be used well by very few people. They who do must have a knowledge of the world to see the foolishness of it, and enough virtue to despise all the vanity.–Abraham Cowley
Solitude gives birth to the original in us.–Thomas Mann
Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.–James Russell Lowell
…solitude is such a potential thing. We hear voices in solitude, we never hear in the hurry and turmoil of life; we receive counsels and comforts, we get under no other condition…–Amelia Barr
The three of us huddle beside the recently covered grave, tears freezing on our cheeks.
“You know what, Mom?” my older daughter asked. “I don’t know if I believe in the power of prayer anymore. I mean, weren’t all those prayers just a waste of time?”
“Wow, do I understand that feeling,” my younger daughter agreed. “Hundreds of people were praying for Dad and he still died, I sometimes wonder, ‘Didn’t God hear all of our prayers?’”
Like a zombie, I stood there in shock and whispered, “At any given time, I often feel the same way.” The I asked the question that haunted me night and day, “How could this have happened? I felt sure our prayers would be answered and your father’s cancer would go into remission.”
As those days of shock and sadness dragged on, I often returned to that cold January morning’s conversation. But how could I give up my belief in the power of prayer? After all, prayer was a priority in my life. My husband, Richard, and I always taught our children to pray. As an adult, I studied books on prayer, and when I read the story of the battle between Israel and Amalek in Exodus, I became fascinated with intercessory prayer. I learned that it was not only the fighters on the field of battle, but also the intercessors on the mountain that made a difference. I didn’t want to bury my prayer life in that grave with Richard, but doubt became a monster that crept in during the night and chided, “Remember how hard you prayed and how sure you were that God would answer?”
Then I’d remember how I tried every possible way of praying. Maybe if I had said the right words in the right way that would help. Perhaps if I prayed on my knees, or visited the prayer room at church, that would make a difference.
Even if the doctors said there was no hope, I would not believe them. I could not imagine life without Richard and I knew God understood and would not let him die. I would not accept their prognosis because I believed in the power of prayer. I knew like those Israelites, our many prayers would help us win the battle for extra time together. The internal argument continued because I knew in my heart I could not live without God in my life and that meant including prayer in my daily schedule.
One morning as I wrestled with the prayer question, the phone rang and my friend asked, “Would you please pray for me? I just found out my breast cancer has returned.”
I put aside my questions, stuffed my doubts, and said, “Of course I will.”
I rejoined our prayer ministry team, prayer for my family, friends, and many others. But something was missing. I had trouble focusing during prayer time, both at worship services and during my personal times of refection.
As the cold winter days turned to springtime, my daughters and I continued visiting the gravesite. “How do you two feel about the power of prayer now?” I asked on morning. Read the rest of this entry »
“All occurs for a reason”, such a beautiful phrase but also seems to be one of the hardest phrase to personally believe or accept when facing difficulty, lost, and disappointment. To be honest I’ve been going through some personal heartbreaks of late, that are too personal to post here, but what I can say is that it’s been a bit like one of your worst fears coming upon you and then not really knowing whether it’s here to stay or it will pass, but all the while waiting in agonizing limbo.
It’s been a real struggling. Sometimes it’s hard—no, almost impossible, to keep on going, taking that next step to make it through the day. I feel at the best of times I’m just running through the motions–a zombie, sorta. Though I’ve heard that “there is always a light at the end of every tunnel” or “the darkest hour is just before dawn” it just doesn’t always look or seem that way in reality.
I think that if it weren’t for the love and mercy of God and His angels of comfort, and the promises in His Word—which gives me the faith and hope to meet these challenges, I’d just be overwhelmed by the weight, the negativity, and despair of it all. Now I don’t want this blog post to spread despair and hopelessness to you. I’m pretty sure that everybody has enough troubles of their own without needing to wade through someone else’s private negativity. So that’s why I wanted to post these beautiful lyrics that really put some interesting perspectives to disappointments and nonsensical occurrences. I mean if you look at troubles in the positive, the way the lyrics below bring out; it certainly takes the edge off the monsters of despair and hopelessness which try to undermine your happiness, faith, and sanity.
If you are going through any personal tragedy in your life right now, I totally feel for you especially after battling myself through some recent long and lonely trials. If sorrow, injury, loneliness, loss, heartbreak, tragedy, death, sickness, confusion, hopelessness, suffering, deprivation, or anyone of the myriad of difficulties of life are crushing down on you and threatening to take everything good away from you—don’t’ give up hope. There is Someone who cares for you and loves you–Jesus, the greatest and most wonderful, loving spirit of light, who loves you more than anyone else in the whole word can and will help you if you need Him. Call out to Him and He will answer you. Trust me He is there in your darkest night. Keep hope alive. Don’t give up the fight. I hope this poem below will encourage you in some special way. You can also listen to a the song at this link:
If every thought that came to mind came true,
What kind of world would it be?
If every promise sworn by man was kept,
What would divine words mean to me?
If every chance to succeed had gone my way,
What personality would I have today?
If my first romance had granted me life’s every passion,
Would I have ever crossed your way?
Looking through the book of my life,
Turning pages of passing years,
I see a perfect rhyme throughout my life line.
Through the good times I hold dear,
And through my heartaches, through my tears,
My life has moved in time to the Creator of the design.
If every kiss had promised something more,
Would I have ever felt let down?
If my every desire had ended in satisfaction,
Would I still be satisfied now?
If my every dream had become reality,
What would I be dreaming of today?
If every wish I’d wished had come to be,
Would I be happier today?
I take from life all it has to give, given by the One for whom I live.
All occurs for a reason,
And for this reason I live a life that was given to me to give.
Through the good times I hold dear,
And through my heartaches, through my tears,
My life has moved in time to the Creator of the design. Music & lyrics: Andrew V., Katrina L.
LIGHT OF YOUR LOVE–Here is a beautiful song that was written, as if the person singing is Mary Magdalene speaking to Jesus. This is not along the lines of the “Da Vinci Code” but rather a very good representation of the pure love of Jesus. I really like this song and enjoy listening to it. I feel that it transports me to a “higher plane”.
It’s a great song to listen to if you are going through a low ebb in your life. I think it has tremendous spiritual power, energy, feeling and emotion–a real masterpiece. You can click on this link below to hear the song:
I saw how You stooped to lift a child,
Watched how You gently, kindly smiled.
That’s when I knew how much I wanted
To be part of You.
I saw how You mended broken lives
Felt how You cared and sympathized
Saw how their heartaches made You cry,
And I loved the heart of You.
And all of my hopes, my dreams, my fears,
Seem to dissolve within Your tears,
And I longed to hold You near & tell You I loved You.
And all of life’s cruel and stinging trials
Vanished before Your gentle smile.
That’s when I knew my heart’s de-sire
Was to spend my life walking in the light of Your love.
And when You held my upturned face,
Tenderly dried my tears away,
All of my past Your love erased,
And I was born anew.
Then I saw what it cost You to be free.
I wept as I watched You die for me.
That’s when I knew that I would be
Forever in love with You.
And all of my hopes, my dreams, my fears,
Seem to dissolve within Your tears,
And I longed to hold You near & tell You I loved You.
And all of life’s cruel and stinging trials
Vanished before Your gentle smile.
That’s when I knew my heart’s desire
Was to spend my life walking in the light of Your love.
And when You rose again and came to me,
I knew Your love was for all eternity,
And You would come one day and take me
To be with You.
And in that Land of no more tears,
And in that Time beyond all years,
You would embrace me, hold me near,
And tell me You loved me.
Where all of life’s cruel and stinging trials
Vanish beneath Your radiant smile,
And You fulfill my heart’s de -sire,
And I’ll be There forever
Living in the light of Your love.
Living in the light of your love,
The Land beyond all time
Living in your love, forever I’ll be there.
Be Happy!...Be Encouraged! 