Every Moment

I've been writing all day: papers for school, letters to friends, random to-do lists/quotes to myself, and just about anything else you can think of. So I really feel the need to write something sort of semi-meaningful. Just a warning I have no real thoughts prepared. So feel free to hit the pretty little red x in the upper right hand corner of your screen at any time ;)

For the past year or so, I pretty much have one giant headache. I consider myself a pretty pain-tolerant person, and I normally don't say anything when I feel bad-I just kind of roll with it. But apparently I wasn't very good at hiding the pain from my face, so after a few months of my mom acting like she believed the "I'm fine" lies, she finally made me go to the doctor. Now I HATE the doctor's office....seriously. They ran a million tests, and found a couple of minor things that could be causing the constant headache. A few months later and some random medications later, I still get headaches pretty frequently. I'm currently in a knock-down dragout fight with my mother about going to some kind of doctor again, so we'll see how this goes. In the meantime, I shall continue to pay the salaries of all the Excedrin-related workers by my purchases alone. (You think I'm kidding, but sadly I'm probably not that far off.....) Now why would I bore you with my random headache story, you ask? Well to be honest, I'm not a hundred percent sure myself. But I know it's been one crazy weekend, and it feels good to just ramble. Anywho....point: I let that small headache affect me waaaay too much this weekend.

I had the opportunity to tour the U of A campus-a beautiful school, and one that I'm very much considering for next year. Because of some family and friend connections, I was able to meet up with a couple of girls who are currently going there that I had met briefly before. They showed me around, answered my questions, and took me to eat at an adorable little sandwich place. They talked, asked about my interests, tried to find places I would be interested in seeing, and tried to get to know more about me. So what did I do? Well, I answered every question as quickly as I could, shut up, and looked out the window or stared at a tree. My head felt like it was about to explode-and that was all that mattered to me. Forget the amazing stories about Katie's summer in Africa or Hayley's book suggestions; all I wanted was the pain to be gone. It was still a good day, but it could have been a great one. Those girls are two that I look up to for their service more than they will ever know. And I totally blew off the opportunity to connect with them because of a stupid headache.

Really, think about it: How often do we fail to take advantage of an opportunity because it may be uncomfortable? We may have to speak in front of someone we don't know, we may have to research a topic we aren't interested in,we may have to work with someone we don't necessarily want to. But what could we be missing out on? We could gain speaking skills that could help us get a job we want, we could discover a passion for something new, or we could make a new, unexpected friend. Why should we hold ourselves back because something hurts a little?

Our vocation is to love above all else; to love above fear, above doubt, above confusion, above pain. Our Creator sent His only son to be born as one of us. He endured more pain in the time he was here then most of us will ever endure in our lifetime. And you know what? He LOVED-without any kind of reservation. Not a single one of us is deserving of it-yet it keeps coming. Love is great, isn't He?

God is providing in abundance. Stop worrying about the painful things that may be going on in this life-we only get closer to beauty every day! Every moment is an opportunity to live out our vocation. Every moment is a call to Love. When do we decide to answer? Well, that's our own choice.

Peace!