Challenge for the week... Or month... Or year...

I don't know about y'all, but right about now, I usually start to get discouraged and depressed. The semester is starting to drag on... Work is fun, but you wish it would alter from it's predictability sometimes. Deadlines come, they go. All around us, nature is doing her work, and all the trees are losing their leaves, or are about too...

Everything just seems to slow down, and life seems to hang in the balance. As the year draws to a close, you gain a more objective view of life in general. You get to review everything you've done, the goals you set, victories, and accomplishments over the past 10 months.

Maybe it's me, but it seems like everyone usually ends up focusing on what they didn't do. Instead of a review of what you've accomplished, it becomes a rememberation of everything you still haven't done, that you need to do, or you wanted to do. If you are like me, you begin to think about everything that has gone wrong, everything that has separated you, everything that didn't go exactly as you planned. And in the end, you get really depressed. You become really sad.

Well, if you feel this way at all, I've got two verses for you:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

~Jeremiah 29:11

"Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God."

~Psalm 42:5

So, what will these two verses tell us? There are two main things we can learn:

1) We are completely and utterly out-of-control. In fact, David takes it as an assumption. He doesn't ask IF our soul is downcast, he asks why. He is assuming that we are depressed, and is basically saying, why???

2) For as much as we are out-of-control, God IS in control. For every doubt we have, for every misgiving we have, God knows exactly what is going on. Not only that, but He goes as far to ensure that the hairs on our head are numbered!

As teens living in the world, we are surrounded by examples of the very opposite emotions God expects us to have. Some of the biggest examples come from Hollywood. With movies like the Twilight series, and a culture obsessed with "emo," few people realize just how much they allow their emotions to control them. Not so much their emotions, but how they view their emotions, the attitudes they develop, and the choices they make. I'll admit, I've allowed myself to taken captive too.

So how do we (this includes me too) break free of the twisted emotion mindset that the world keeps trying to push on us? The answer is so simple, and yet so hard.

Just depend on God.

That's really all there is too it. It seems so easy, and yet it is so hard. By trusting in God, we can know that we don't have a care in the world. We really do have everything to gain, and nothing to lose! And when you are constantly thinking about what an awesome God we have, how can you not be happy? How can you not jump up and down for joy? How can you not rejoice in His amazing creation?

So now, instead of being depressed by the falling leaves around you, marvel at how God has created such an amazing system! Think about everything you have done this year, and all the goals you DID manage to get accomplished. But also start thinking about next year. Learn from your mistakes, try to move on, and most importantly, remember, God is in control!!

And if you are like me, and are easily amused, then go walk on some crunchy fall leaves. That always makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside...

~unclejoe