Don't Miss Out

 ^"This is the day that the Lord has made;
    let us rejoice and be glad in it."

Psalm 118:24

It’s Friday evening. You are curled up on the couch with your favorite cup of tea. You are ready to enjoy some rest and relaxation after a long week of work. You are about to scroll through your list of recordings on your PVR, but first decide to scroll through your Facebook newsfeed. That’s when it hits you…BAM!  You quickly discover some of your friends are enjoying a glass of wine at a trendy lounge (hmm. Where was my invite? You wonder…) Then KA-BAM!  Your neighbour posts her photo album from her luxurious vacation in Fiji (*sigh* I wish I could travel more, you ponder...) Then before you pick yourself up from that deflation BOOM! Your co-worker announces her surprise engagement.  That’s it! You’re officially defeated. Your lovely evening of peace and solitude no longer seems as appealing as all of the other fun and exciting things going on with the rest of the people know. Your heart races, your eyes well up in tears, and your stomach twists. What’s wrong with me? You exclaim. I can tell you – you are dealing with a case of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).

The New York Times defines FOMO or “fear of missing out,” as “the blend of anxiety, inadequacy and irritation that can flare up while skimming social media like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Instagram.”  This immediate connection to hundreds of people’s lives often leads us to the discontent of our own lives, when they pale in comparison to others. Succumbing to these unhealthy FOMO feelings caused by a virtual world will often penetrate through to real life, and affect the quality of our relationships and how we view ourselves.

It’s important to adapt with the changes that different stages of life will bring you and the people in your life, and not to get caught up in comparing. It seems that we are constantly stimulated through social media and made aware of all the ways our life COULD be different than it is now, instead of simply being grateful for all that we are blessed with currently and enjoying our own personal journey.

The other side of this issue is that when we are suffering from these fears of missing out on something great, we often over-commit ourselves to the point of burn out. We eagerly accept every invite out, we plan event after event to keep our calendars full and exciting, we come home from one vacation and promptly plan the next one. Why can't we just SLOW DOWN? Why can't we be OK with where we are in our life with who is in it? Why can't we just LIVE each day fully and passionately, accepting whole-heartily the fact that we are exactly where we should be, doing exactly what we are doing? Often our expectations of how things should be cause a restlessness in the way things actually are. The more we resist the way things ARE, the more pain and frustration we feel. Less joy. Less peace. "If you could only keep quiet, clear of memories and expectations, you would be able to discern the beautiful pattern of events. It's your restlessness that causes chaos." – Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

In this day and age, it’s more important than ever to make peace with the peace. Make it a priority to disconnect yourself from the digital world and from engaging yourself into the social lives of others. Live each day joyfully and gratefully. Appreciate the simple pleasures, notice the small things. When you live this way, even the most ordinary routine days are something to celebrate. In my post “Keeping Up”  I spoke about the dangers of comparison. Don’t miss out on your OWN life. Slow down. Trust that God is working in your life right now in the exact moment. Trust His timing, and trust His process. In the meantime, make peace with the peace.

“To live your best life now, you must learn to trust God’s timing, you may not think He’s working, but you can be sure that right now, behind the scenes, God is arranging all the pieces to come together to work out His plan for your life.” - Joel Olsteen



Come as you are

“Our greatest strength as a human race is our ability to acknowledge our differences; our greatest weakness is our failure to embrace them.” – Judith Henderson

There is nothing that aggravates me more than one’s intolerance of another human being. Have you ever been hated just because you are whom God made you to be? That has got to one of the cruelest human acts I can think of. We constantly hear about the horrid details of bullying in schools or through social media. Children and teens have gone so far as suicide they could no longer cope with the unrelenting abuse and attacks of their being. And it doesn’t get better as you get older either. There isn’t an office in business that is without its share of office politics, cliques, and gossiping. Worst of all, there continues to be an underlying tone of intolerance world-wide of different races and religions creating multitudes of injustice, murders and hate crimes. Intolerance is a huge problem, and the problem starts with each and every one of us.

We’re all guilty of raising an eyebrow at the woman walking the street corner, the drug addict or alcoholic making a scene, or the homeless man begging for money. Or maybe you roll your eyes when you encounter people of a certain race or religion and are annoyed by the way they speak, drive, walk or even how they generally interact with others. We already have a pre-conceived notion about this person based on our own personal belief system, and we decide we don’t like them at all; and so it begins. It is much easier to judge and condemn than it is to understand and love. It’s important to understand the “why” in why person is a certain way. If you only took the time to listen to their stories, sometimes filled with tears and shame, you would be ashamed of yourself for not offering these people anything less than sincere compassion. Replace your judgements and criticism with love and acceptance, and you will reap the benefits of doing this. The results will not only bring you inner-peace, but also a moment of peace to the poor souls who are so deserving of it as well.

God sometimes puts different and sometimes difficult people in your life to challenge you, to chisel away at you and make you more like Jesus. Let’s face it - people are going to get on your nerves. People are going to annoy the heck out of you and there are going to be people you just completely dislike altogether. All I ask is that you think twice about what kind of energy and attitude you are expressing in these situations, and ask yourself if you are being intolerant.

When you encounter someone who you find difficult to accept as they are, replace your judgements and criticisms with love and acceptance. Pray for them. Let go of your idea of how people should be and accept them as they are. Acceptance of others brings you an inner-peace and tranquillity, instead of anger and resentment. Poor, sick, gay, straight, black, white, Jew, Muslim, the sinful, the broken, those on the wrong side of the tracks – love them all with the boundary-breaking love of Christ. If we all could only follow His example and love others like He did, there truly would be peace in our hearts, and in this world.

Love does not rejoice about injustice, but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 1 Corinthians 13:6

Sleep in Heavenly Peace

One of my favourite Christmas songs is Silent Night. There’s something about it that evokes this sense of calm and peace whenever I hear it. We all know how hectic the holiday season can be, and in the midst of the hustle and bustle we could all use a little peace and calm. Peace is one of things that we all strive to maintain in our lives, but it certainly isn’t an easy task. So how does one attain a lasting, fulfilling sense of peace in their lives? What IS peace really? And why do we all want it so badly?

I can start by telling you what peace isn’t. Peace is not based on your life circumstances. It’s not based on your social ranking, your financial status, or your appearance. It’s not based on how many friends you have or how much you love your job. It’s not based on your health or how much you have saved in your pension plan. It’s not based on all the countries you’ve travelled to or how long you can meditate in the lotus position. No, it’s not based on anything the world can give you, really. Peace is an inner condition of your heart and soul – never based on externals.

Many of us have clever ideas to get us to that desired inner-state of peace. Some may think peace is a quick escape to a far-away land of numbness; a place where there is no pain, no shame, no guilt or drama. A place of quiet and calm where you are truly accepted and belong. How do we get there? Oh you know, by binge-drinking ourselves into oblivion on the weekends, by smoking up or even worse popping pills. You can’t feel anything, so that’s gotta be peace, right? Or maybe you hop from relationship to relationship, or worse bed to bed, temporarily feeling the blissful high of fleeting romance and pleasure. You feel fantastic, albeit for a very temporary time, but while it lasts it’s rather peaceful to have that empty void in your heart filled. That’s for sure gotta be it. Or maybe you don’t bother with any of that – you’re too busy. You lose yourself in your work. You stay busy and focus on achieving greatness. You got work to do, and nothing else matters. You don’t have time to feel lonely or empty. I hate to break it to you, but none of these harmful practices will provide you with a lasting and fulfilling, overflowing sense of peace.

Well maybe you don’t do any of the above, but you still don’t quite feel that sense of peace. There are a few things that many of us do daily that disturb the peace:

We worry – Worry is truly a thief of peace. You cannot be filled with worry and anxiety and be filled with peace at the same time. (For more on this, see my post "Nothing to Worry About.")
“Don’t worry about anything; instead; pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds.” Philippians 4:6-7


We’re discontent – Life is messy. Things happen and troubles WILL come. Don’t be discontent of where you are in your life. Live presently, and ride the wave. Enjoy the journey and LET GO. Trying to maintain a sense of control in your life will rob your peace in a heartbeat. Just live. The rest will work itself out. "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:3

We hold onto anger and resentment – If you have any unresolved anger in your heart, or you are holding onto resentment towards another, it’s going to be impossible for you to achieve peace. Do yourself a favour and let it go. Find healing for yourself. Forgive that person who did that thing, move on from that terrible situation you were in a few years ago, grieve the loss of that person that you never allowed yourself to. When you are holding onto any of these emotions you truly are doing yourself an injustice. You are robbing yourself of peace. (For more on this, see my post re: "Soul poison")

Yes friends. TRUE, lasting, overflowing peace is not given to us by this world. It’s only given to us by our Heavenly Father and our relationship with him. In Him you will find rest for your soul. You will find freedom from your past, and be truly Saved With his Amazing Grace, ( I call that Jesus SWAG for short, get it? haha). You will find so much peace that people will literally be attracted to the peace you exude. You will be a peacemaker wherever you go.

 Maybe this is a huge concept for you to really grasp onto right now in your life, and I’m not asking you to, but maybe next time you find yourself in need of some peace, give Him a holler. Let Him know what you need and ask Him what you can do. Think about it. Yeah? K Peace.  ;)

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
John 14:27

Nothing to Worry About

"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength"- Corrie Ten Boom

We all worry about things from time to time.  We worry about the “what if’s” in our future and then ruminate the “should’ve, would’ve, could'ves” in our head after things happen. We tend to fear the unknown, and find ourselves playing the worst case scenario in our heads. We become consumed with attempting to control future events. We worry about things that our beyond our control.

A seemingly small worry will lead you into stress, which will snowball you into fear and will eventually catapult you into anxiety, leaving you paralyzed physically and emotionally exhausted. Worrying will quickly sap the peace right out of you. Not only that, it may prevent from you from experiencing your best life, your highest potential, and your ultimate happiness. Take for example:

Worries In your relationships  - When you worry in matters of love, you are creating fear within your heart and your relationship. Love and fear cannot co-exist. Typically, when you find yourself in love, you start to worry that this great experience will be taken away from you; you worry he/she will find someone better, you worry you are not pretty enough/thin enough/smart enough, you worry that you will get hurt. So then what happens? With this worry in your heart, you then start to FEAR. You begin to fear the worst case scenario, so you close up your heart, you attempt to control your partner – you become jealous and possessive. You become needy. You are no longer enjoying a love-filled, easy, peaceful relationship, you have succumbed to a battle of control and fear and you call it love, and guess what happens? Your fear and worry will likely lead to the demise of the relationship. "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love." 1 John 4:18

Worries in day to day life – One of my family members, God bless her heart, is consumed by fear of things that will never happen. "You can't go to Mexico – haven’t you heard about all those people that disappear?", or "You shouldn’t go that restaurant – don’t you know they don’t wash their vegetables very well?", or  "You shouldn’t drive on the highway; there are too many crazy drivers out there." Her fear unfortunately prevents her from experiencing all the joys and pleasures life has to offer. The fear of something terrible happening paralyses and restricts you to a mediocre life of routine. "For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control.” 2 Timothy 1

Worries about your life direction –  You may find yourself in worries such as these: "I don’t want to go apply to that job, I will never qualify.", or "I’m not going to talk to my boss about my concern, he probably wont care.", or "Im not going to start my own business, it will probably fail.", or "I hate my job but its comfortable, to try something new is too scary and difficult.", or  "I don’t want to take that big risk because what if it doesn’t work out." We worry so much that we miss out on all the opportunities and blessings that are offered to you. Every moment of every day, you are making choices that will either lead you closer to your highest level of purpose and happiness, or steer you away from it.  "The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one."  - Elbert Hubbard

The things we worry and fear about are the very things that may lead you into a  loving and joyous relationship, an exciting new adventure and experience, or a new promising direction in your life. God created this magnificent land for us to enjoy! He wants you to live a good, pleasing, abundant and joyous life and He gives you every opportunity to attain that. So the only question is… what’s holding you back? ;)