Live: A Definition

Adult life is hard,

Adult life is difficult.

And adult life is different then I imagined.

There's a routine,

Get up.

Go to the gym.

Go to work.

Go home.

Go to bed.

And of course, there's a few moments of change in that routine.

But in all of the words of wisdom I got about what it means to be an adult,

There was one piece of advice I never heard.

Remember how you want to live.

Because in the midst of the everyday life,

In the midst of work,

In the midst of bills,

In the midst of grocery shopping,

In the midst of doing all of the things necessary to lead a stable life,

I've forgotten how to live.

And today I came across this verse, and I was reminded of a simple truth.

"Since I live, you will also live" ( John 14:20)

Because Jesus rose and died again, I'm offered life.

Because Jesus lives,

I also live.

And the beautiful thing about that,

The beautiful thing about this offer of life,

Is not not everyone's definition of life has to be identical.

There are the basics that are same,

But when God created each of us individually,

Designed us uniquely,

He created us with passions that make us excited to get of bed in the morning, 

He created us with hopes and dreams,

He created us with a desire to live, and live fully.

And sometimes, 

In order to truly live, and live fully,

We have to step back,

And define with that looks like for us.

I have to define what it means for me to truly live.

To truly live, I need community.

I need to be surrounded by people, who know me intimately,

Who knows what makes me laugh,

What makes me cry,

Who will bring me a Diet Coke to celebrate,

And a Diet Coke when I need to mourn.

To truly live,

I need people who walk with me through seasons of life,

In the good,

The bad,

And the ugly.

To truly live, I need to constantly learn.

To learn about myself,

To learn about others,

And to learn about those passions that I think about when I get out of the bed in the morning.

To truly live, I need to be intentional about time by myself,

Time spent alone,

Time spent away from the distractions of a busy world,

That tells it's not OK to sit still,

That busy is better,

And another Netflix binge will fill my time when I feel lonely,

Instead of learning to sit in that loneliness,

And embrace the time alone.

To truly live, I need to write,

To craft sentences,

To edit and erase,

Write and start over,

Because that's where I can best hear the whispers of God in the middle of the noise I surround myself with.

To truly live, I need to dream.

I need to dream of a future,

A future full of dream of adventures,

Of spontaneous trips,

Of open doors,

And full houses.

To truly live, I need to remember

Remember who I am,

And where I came from.

I need to remember that every day is a part of the journey, and that's part of the beauty.

To truly live I need to remember that my dreams don't have to be in the future.

I need to remember that all of those things can be part of my life in the here and now.

To live, I need to choose.

Choose what brings me joy.

Choose what makes me full.

Choose what brings me life.

To live, I need to define what to truly live looks like to me.

Because in the midst of the everyday life,

In the midst of work,

In the midst of bills,

In the midst of grocery shopping,

In the midst of doing all of the things necessary to lead a stable life,

It's easy to forget.

So, what's your definition of what it means to live?

What do you need to live life fully?

And how will you choose not to forget?