More than a Line

I sometimes wonder why my emotions have to change so often. I wish I didn't have to constantly go up and down. Never knowing when I wake up in the morning how I'm going to be feeling just a few hours from then can be immensely frustrating. I often wonder how I could change this, how I could keep my emotions stable and constant. But then I got to thinking, is this really what I'd want?

I realized if my emotions were constant and never varied then I couldn't feel happiness or excitement. Yeah, I wouldn't feel disappointment, sadness and pain but I think it is often from these feelings that we learn the most. And the valleys of life help us appreciate the mountaintops so much more. I want to feel - to feel everything. And I want to be able to feel it all with every bit of intensity I can. I may fall harder, faster, and lower but I will be raised up in the same way. So I must embrace my emotions and let myself feel them. As I do this I have the constant stability of God by my side to rejoice with me at the top and pull me out of the pits. How could I ever have wanted anything else?

A Better Home

For over five months now, I've been praying for the homeless. When I started this 6x6 prayer (praying for one thing six days a week for six months), I had no idea why I chose this topic. I'd never felt particularly called to help the homeless before or hadn't had any experience that might cause me to choose this particular group of people. All I had was a line from a song ("You never had a home") and a strong conviction that this was what God wanted me to pray for. So I prayed and prayed some more and as I continued praying, I started focusing on what exactly homelessness meant. I went on the internet and recorded some points I thought were interesting. Some synonyms I found to the word homeless were helpless, unprotected, abandoned and deserted. I find it interesting that these words carry a whole lot more meaning than just not having a roof over your head. They all hold a sense of loneliness and an idea that there is no one they can turn to. And I realized that while I may not be able to provide all these people food or shelter, I can show them love. I can tell them through my words and more importantly through my actions, that they are not alone, that someone wants to help them and cares for them. I can share with them the wonderful hope they can have for an eternal home in Heaven. Living in that home is so much more important than having a temporal home here on earth. After all, many people with mansions here may find themselves without any protection after death. And those are the truly helpless people. They are helpless not because of a lack of shelter but because when they were shown love, they chose to remain helpless and unprotected by abandoning and deserting the only one who could help them.