Your Story Isn’t Over Yet.

You still have breaths to breathe, joy to encounter, and experiences to live.

Lately I’ve been at lost for words and haven’t quite known how to express all these emotions I’ve been feeling. Life has gotten in the way of my plans and once again I find myself looking up into the heavens wondering what I did wrong, and why I thought I could handle it alone…

Taking a week off from classes, responsibilities, work, and regular life brought a new and much needed refreshment I didn’t know my soul needed.

So where do I even begin?

We begin at the very beginning and we move our way up the ladder from where we first fell. What a beautiful struggle our stories are. Each and every person I’ve encountered has a beautifully flawed story just like mine, but we learn so well how to mask it. Some days we feel like we can just burst from excitement when things are going just as planned (or even better). And some days we feel like the world is against us making our problems big, and us smaller. So where does this leave me? Well… I’m learning how to worship through every atmosphere I encounter. Not everyone in life will necessarily agree or like you, and you have to be okay with it because we are all subjected to our opinion. God recently convicted me about something I’d been doing wrong for a long time. I’d been quick to love, but also quick to push people away when they hurt me. God’s love for us is not from a distance, and that’s what I’d been doing for so long. It’s almost like a mechanical reaction, an instinct created by ourselves to protect our hearts. But the reality of it all is that we have to be in a place so anchored in our identity in Christ, that even when people hurt you (which will happen often) you will not be quick to judge or pull away. I’m still struggling with the concept of grace, but there is a grace that abounds deeper than any ocean we have ever seen. There are new levels of God’s heart yet to be discovered that the first step is to accept the love for yourself. Love can only be given once it is fully received, and grace can only be given once grace is fully embraced. Your life is living proof that there is a God who is yearning for an intimate relationship with you.

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.”

Psalm 139:14

This scripture is proof that the creator of the universe, and the same God that chose you by name made YOU in his image and longs to be reunited with you again, all you have to do is say yes. This means looking at yourself with different eyes. Instead of seeing all the imperfections, begin to look at yourself through the eyes that made you in the same image of God.

Learn how to worship through the pain

The moment Jesus becomes greater than the problems in our lives, faith becomes easier and we are able to see more clearly the beautiful horizon we’d been longing to see for so long. Learn how to serve from a place of love, and God will honor you because of your heart, not your acts. Worship is not about giving your best all the time, but it’s about giving everything you have even when you don’t have much to give.

“Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume;
    she poured it on Jesus’s feet and wiped his feet with her hair.
    And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.“

John12:3

So whether these words spoke to a hidden part of you buried deep inside, or not, don’t let anything you do be meaningless. Life a life filled with a purpose, and know that your story isn’t over yet and there’s so much yet left to live.

XoXo,

Karina