Young, but stung...

There is so much optimism early on- well, for many that is! The sun dawns on a world of opportunity and hope.  They look forward to the future with excitement.

Some time later, the leaks in life start draining that dream of this or that, him or her... and emptiness begins to greet each new day.  

"What happened?  Where did those dreams go?" they ask themselves.

They can't even say when it happened, so distracted with life, the days full to overflowing, they didn't even notice the change...

One dreadful morning, many of us wake up running on empty and see a whole highway still ahead to travel. With no fuel station in sight, we are stuck, and, even worse, it is hot and uncomfortable on that road shoulder.

Life is a distraction from the life we are intended to live.  No, that's not double talk.  We go about running to keep pace with our busy lives and never notice the fuel gauge revealing the quality of life is nearing empty.  Then something draws our attention to it:  illness, loss, some crisis or other shocks us awake.

Those bumps in the road that 'wake' us turn our eyes outward.  Most often, we do not like what we see.  Those goals we set early in life are missing or so far down that road that we have given up ever getting there.  So we settled down where we were and set up shop. And that spot is mosquito-infested!  We soon see that life has stung us deeper than any buzzing insect lying in wait this time of year...

Life did not go the way we wanted it too. And that fact hurts.  It stings that we did not accomplish this or that which we had planned.  Looking around at others who have succeeded where we didn't doesn't help either. Then there are the remarks from well-meaning folk that only rub salt on the sores.

That is when the worst things possible can appear.  Bitterness, depression, temptations to do what we know we shouldn't because it doesn't matter anymore in this new reality...

But there is one thing you need to know.

You have run out of 'yourself,' those dreams for yourself gone, but you have not become the self you could be, and could still be, in God's eyes.

That story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32)  is just such a story. That wayward boy had to hit bottom before he understood how far he had fallen, how empty he was compared to the fullness he had once known in his father's house.

Now, to be sure, we are not all blessed with such a father in this world, but there is a Heavenly Father who is longing to run and meet us, to take us in and restore us to what HE had in store for us all along. 

If you do not know how to get in contact with that loving Father, take the Discover Jesus or How to Talk to God course and talk with your coach about what you feel.

  You can be so close to finding your life again, the fullness you were meant to live!