Reaching Out

I have always liked the concept of the human family. We are all children of God living here side by side. Every single person you talk to, wave at, or walk by is your brother or sister. A family is a cohesive unit designed to support the growth of each of it’s members. And so I believe that we all should do the same for those around us.

And we do.

I have often been the recipient of such kindness and I love seeing people reach out to others to strengthen them and lift them up. It encourages me to do the same.

But sometimes we don’t.

Often because of the busyness of our lives, we don’t see the needs of those around us. And maybe it isn’t we miss someone’s need, but we just miss how we could make their day a little bit brighter. It’s hard to get out of our forest of concerns and look around. I know this true for me: I’ve got school assignments, work and other things constantly on my mind that serve only me. But a concerted effort to be concerned about others can open our eyes. And when we are aware of others, then we can reach out and love them as our brothers and sisters.

YOLO is a lie (part 1)

Typically used as a way to justify a stupid/irrational action, “yolo” is the modern, less intelligent, version of “carpe diem”.

You only live once? I live everyday.

The fact is this: the awesomest things we do in life are not going to be accomplished because we decided to live like there’s no tomorrow. It will be because we lived like there is a tomorrow and we’re going to make tomorrow great. We cannot live like the consequences of our actions don’t matter. We need to live deliberately in light of the consequences of our actions. That way we really end up where we want to be and who we want to be. If we live each day as an isolated entity, with no thought for the future, we’ll probably end up in a van down by the river.