How much changes in a year?

12/11/15

One year ago today marks the first post of this blog. I have learnt things and grown in the past year so today I'll share with you one of these things.

At the beginning of last year I was scared of the future. The funny thing is I thought I knew what I was going to do, it made sense, lined up with my passion and though I was open to God changing that idea, every time I was asked what I was going to do after school I would give the same answer. Yet I was scared. Where would I go? How would it work out?

About halfway through the year the realisation dawned that it didn't matter if I knew. It didn't matter because God knew and that was enough for now. Around the same time I started to wonder if this plan was really what I was supposed to do. It wasn't what I wanted to do every day anymore. Some days my passion was not even enjoyable. That was really hard, but I slowly learnt to trust God with that too. Now not only did I not know where I was going I had little idea what to do when I got there. That was towards the end of last year. Over the past half a year I have tried to plan what I am doing next year. I have some ideas and I have gathered information and I have prayed. And now I wait to see which direction God leads. And actually it is not that bad. Going from someone who was worried because she didn't know the details of the next stage of life to now not knowing for certain where I will be or what I will be doing in 2 or 3 months time and being okay with that (most of the time) is, well, strange. I don't mind not knowing as much anymore and though some days I am very stressed because I feel like I am running out of time to figure it out, it is easier to wait than it used to be. I find it very fascinating how I now see that it was a step by step process. God didn't just throw me into complete unknown, out-of-my-depth water, but slowly lead me down a step at a time whilst I learnt to trust Him a little more at each step.

How much changes in a year? A lot and a little. In some areas there has been a large shifting and in others, not as much as I would like. I still have a lot of the same flaws and weaknesses as a year ago, but life is a journey and as long as I am continuously changing to become more like Jesus and more like the person God wants me to be then it is okay.

Like puffs of wind

Psalms 78:39 "God remembered that they were made of flesh and were like a wind that blows once and then dies down." 

Have you ever thought about how out of everyone God is interested in you? And wants a relationship with you? Never does he write you off as a lost cause, even when you mess up pretty badly. Out of 7 billion plus people he doesn't just give up and move on to the next one. Like in the story of the 99 sheep where the 100th one was missing, the shepard left 99 sheep to go and find the 1. He looked for the last one and saved it. He hasn't given up on you. He's not going to give up on you.

Happily ever after

All fairytales I've heard end with happily ever after. Why is this? Do all people have an innate knowledge that there is such a thing? Is the reason so many people, or at least children, believe that it exists is because it does? Maybe not here, but it does :)

C.S Lewis' quote sums this up pretty well:

"If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

- C.S Lewis

P.S. Whilst writing this one of my friends sent me a message about a fantasied happily ever after :P  

Nefelibata aka. My favourite word

I love words. I love unusual words and at the moment my favourite word is actually not even an English word. It is Portuguese.

Nefelibata.
It's literal meaning is "cloud-walker"
The definition is: Someone who lives in the clouds of their own imagination or dreams; one who does not obey the conventions of society or art.

Feeding plants

"Sometimes I feel useless but then I remember I breathe out carbon dioxide for plants"

As necessary as plants are I'm not quite sure our whole function is to facilitate their photosynthesis. But sometimes when we feel useless we can be exactly what someone needs just by being us and just by being there. Even if we feel like we aren't helping, a silly conversation, a few encouraging words or just showing that we care and are happy to be a part of their lives can be helpful. Perhaps more than is apparent. 

Capturing the moments

I have decided to undertake a challenge. I am quite excited. I am going to try and take a photo a day. There will probably be some pretty silly ones and some rather terrible ones but I think it'll be fun as well as making sure I am using my camera more which in turn will make sure that I learn more.

I've decided to create a new blog to upload them to that is focused on that project. This blog will still be for writing and showing you things as I see them. I'll probably upload the photos on maybe on a weekly basis? Daily could get a bit overwhelming time wise as well as the sheer number of posts that would have to go up.

You can find this project here: http://myviewingoftheworld.blogspot.com/

Capturing the moments that make up my life
 Here is Day 1:

Ichariba chode

As some people know I have a fascination with Japan. I also have a fascination with words. So a Japanese phrase with a nice meaning that I stumbled across whilst scrolling through Other Wordly is pretty cool to me. I thought I'd share it with ya'll :)

Ichariba chode 
   "Though we meet but once, even by chance, we are friends for life."

I met a lot of people when I was overseas that I may never see again which is a little sad, but even so I am glad to have met them. It's pretty cool to have some once-met people across the world that I will always consider friends.