Life Is Magic Even If It's Crappy
You can easily see in my home all the things that need fixing. We bought our home 10 years ago as two broke twenty somethings. It was a miracle we even came about becoming homeowners! We were only 23 years old with one main source of income, but the housing market had crashed and homes were going for next to nothing. And by some act of God, we purchased our home. It was a flip. The previous owners foreclosed and a guy bought this house, did some minor renovations (wish I could go back and ask him to flip this kitchen!!) and sold it for a nice profit from what he bought it for. This was the start to our life in Virginia and one we never look back on in regret.
This home has experienced much with us. There has been laughter, sorrow, fights, make ups, children, animals. It's not in the most updated condition. It's over 30 years old and in desperate need of renovation. We have many things to fix up over the next few years as finances will become more available. But it's our house! I just ask that you keep your eyes up in my kitchen to avoid looking at the hideous counter tops. We've made this house a home. I often think, "Man! My life is magical!"
Our life IS magical! Despite not having the most beautiful home! I'm married to my best friend. We have two beautiful girls and I have the privilege of homeschooling them. My husband is a hard worker and supports our life. I get to pursue my dreams of life in ministry all while staying home with my daughters. Did I mention my kitty, Millie, that I'm obsessed with? She's our icing on the cake.
My life is amazing. My life is magical, not because my life is perfect or trouble free but because my life centers around God.
But our life is far from perfect and far from hardship, yet still, I claim a magical state to my life because we don't walk the road of hardship alone.
Often times, we view one another through the lens of Facebook and Instagram, scrolling through the highlights of people's lives. We see everything perfect that is their life! We see the moment their kids are behaving. We see their farm sink. We catch a glimpse of their perfectly decorated home. We see their perfect hair cut and expensive clothes.
Friends, this is all good and well. Thanks for sharing those moments with us. I'm so, incredibly happy for you that something SO GREAT happened to you in your day that you chose to include us in on that! Or that ah-ha moment that fell over you and you granted us room to peer inside your mind and life for a second in hopes of inspiration.
But everyone! Let's not confuse these moments with the actual ebb and flow of life.
No one is immune to the stress of life, the impending doom of a bill you don't have the money to pay, the overly busy schedule. Let's not pretend that the perfect filter fixes all of that. It simply masks it for a second. And yeah, putting out something positive will help us forget some stress, even if it's just for a minute or two, so I'll never stand on my soap box and tell people to stop with the highlight reel. What I will challenge is what we all do as consumers of the highlight reels of everyone else that impedes on what could be the "magic" of our life.
Jealousy is easy to set in and judgement oozes as we scroll through what others put out. And their intent could have perfectly pure motives. I know that I pursue a clean esthetic in my instagram feed because it makes me happy to have everything edited in the same way and to clean my home and document it. But I pray that these outpourings of what I share, and what others are sharing, don't drape over you with the perception of perfection. People everywhere are broken and hurting. No one is immune to pain. We all have darkness in our life that either envelopes us or we deny that it exists. Some people just can't catch a break in life. We all have our burdens we bear and we can't see that someone shared a moment of calm or a really amazing make up day and decide that their life is better than ours and send ourselves into spiraling decent of discontentment and anger.
Paul was put in prison A LOT.
(If you don't know who Paul is, he's a spiritual gangster in the Bible who used to kill Christians and then became a Christian himself. He helped guide churches in the early days of the start of the church and wrote letters which we can all read in the New Testament in the Bible.)
He was thrown in prison many, many times, usually for preaching about Jesus. And he still wrote to the churches and helped them figure out their problems and I love what this man, who was beaten and put into prison again said,
Phillipians 4:10-14
"I’m glad in God, far happier than you would ever guess—happy that you’re again showing such strong concern for me. Not that you ever quit praying and thinking about me. You just had no chance to show it. Actually, I don’t have a sense of needing anything personally. I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. I don’t mean that your help didn’t mean a lot to me—it did. It was a beautiful thing that you came alongside me in my troubles."
Paul isn't telling the church that they can get to the next level of growth or that God is going to walk you into good and better things if you believe hard enough or serve him long enough or don't say a cuss word all week. God doesn't work like that. Paul is expressing to this people that you can find rest and comfort in God in all things and in all situations and that God is going to walk through those terrible and difficult times with you. He's here to get dirty with us in life and won't bail on us. God doesn't have a defined line of when you're too messed up or your life is too much of a train wreck to be a part of any more. He is HERE with us!
Things can be pretty crappy for you, but your life can still have that magical feeling because you have God and he's walking right along with you through the failures and the tragedies that hit you. God keeps us going when we feel like we can't go anymore.
So, I pray that you find the magic in your life, that you experience what it is to walk with God and to have him sustain you when you're tired because He loves you oh so very much.
This home has experienced much with us. There has been laughter, sorrow, fights, make ups, children, animals. It's not in the most updated condition. It's over 30 years old and in desperate need of renovation. We have many things to fix up over the next few years as finances will become more available. But it's our house! I just ask that you keep your eyes up in my kitchen to avoid looking at the hideous counter tops. We've made this house a home. I often think, "Man! My life is magical!"
Our life IS magical! Despite not having the most beautiful home! I'm married to my best friend. We have two beautiful girls and I have the privilege of homeschooling them. My husband is a hard worker and supports our life. I get to pursue my dreams of life in ministry all while staying home with my daughters. Did I mention my kitty, Millie, that I'm obsessed with? She's our icing on the cake.
My life is amazing. My life is magical, not because my life is perfect or trouble free but because my life centers around God.
But our life is far from perfect and far from hardship, yet still, I claim a magical state to my life because we don't walk the road of hardship alone.
Often times, we view one another through the lens of Facebook and Instagram, scrolling through the highlights of people's lives. We see everything perfect that is their life! We see the moment their kids are behaving. We see their farm sink. We catch a glimpse of their perfectly decorated home. We see their perfect hair cut and expensive clothes.
Friends, this is all good and well. Thanks for sharing those moments with us. I'm so, incredibly happy for you that something SO GREAT happened to you in your day that you chose to include us in on that! Or that ah-ha moment that fell over you and you granted us room to peer inside your mind and life for a second in hopes of inspiration.
But everyone! Let's not confuse these moments with the actual ebb and flow of life.
No one is immune to the stress of life, the impending doom of a bill you don't have the money to pay, the overly busy schedule. Let's not pretend that the perfect filter fixes all of that. It simply masks it for a second. And yeah, putting out something positive will help us forget some stress, even if it's just for a minute or two, so I'll never stand on my soap box and tell people to stop with the highlight reel. What I will challenge is what we all do as consumers of the highlight reels of everyone else that impedes on what could be the "magic" of our life.
Jealousy is easy to set in and judgement oozes as we scroll through what others put out. And their intent could have perfectly pure motives. I know that I pursue a clean esthetic in my instagram feed because it makes me happy to have everything edited in the same way and to clean my home and document it. But I pray that these outpourings of what I share, and what others are sharing, don't drape over you with the perception of perfection. People everywhere are broken and hurting. No one is immune to pain. We all have darkness in our life that either envelopes us or we deny that it exists. Some people just can't catch a break in life. We all have our burdens we bear and we can't see that someone shared a moment of calm or a really amazing make up day and decide that their life is better than ours and send ourselves into spiraling decent of discontentment and anger.
Paul was put in prison A LOT.
(If you don't know who Paul is, he's a spiritual gangster in the Bible who used to kill Christians and then became a Christian himself. He helped guide churches in the early days of the start of the church and wrote letters which we can all read in the New Testament in the Bible.)
He was thrown in prison many, many times, usually for preaching about Jesus. And he still wrote to the churches and helped them figure out their problems and I love what this man, who was beaten and put into prison again said,
Phillipians 4:10-14
"I’m glad in God, far happier than you would ever guess—happy that you’re again showing such strong concern for me. Not that you ever quit praying and thinking about me. You just had no chance to show it. Actually, I don’t have a sense of needing anything personally. I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. I don’t mean that your help didn’t mean a lot to me—it did. It was a beautiful thing that you came alongside me in my troubles."
Paul isn't telling the church that they can get to the next level of growth or that God is going to walk you into good and better things if you believe hard enough or serve him long enough or don't say a cuss word all week. God doesn't work like that. Paul is expressing to this people that you can find rest and comfort in God in all things and in all situations and that God is going to walk through those terrible and difficult times with you. He's here to get dirty with us in life and won't bail on us. God doesn't have a defined line of when you're too messed up or your life is too much of a train wreck to be a part of any more. He is HERE with us!
Things can be pretty crappy for you, but your life can still have that magical feeling because you have God and he's walking right along with you through the failures and the tragedies that hit you. God keeps us going when we feel like we can't go anymore.
So, I pray that you find the magic in your life, that you experience what it is to walk with God and to have him sustain you when you're tired because He loves you oh so very much.
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