When God shows off in your life

God is funny, you realize that when you get to know him. So many times in my life I've decided to pray a small prayer and God shows up and gives me everything I asked for and ten times more. Other times I don't even pray, I just think about something and God answers my little wish just to show me that he cares. He is so good.

A couple of days ago I was thinking to myself:"I wonder when we'll get some snow in Toronto because so far we've only had the first snow." Yesterday evening I decided to do some Christmas shopping and just as I was leaving the house it started snowing. I was so happy because Christmas shopping becomes more fun when it looks like winter outside. It kept snowing all night.

This morning I was super excited about our first snow storm in Toronto and took a lot of pictures of the snow. I thought to myself: "The only problem is that the pictures don't really show how beautiful this day is because it's cloudy." Two hours later the snow storm suddenly ended and the sun started shining brighter and brighter. I said to God: "Wow God, you are really showing off today aren't you?" He is funny.

"Who cares?" you might think, it's just snow! Now this example is just a funny little one about my own excitement about snow, but I have noticed that the more you stop to notice what God is doing in your life, every little thing, the more you will get to see him move big mountains in your life. We were built for awe and wonder but we can easily miss what God is doing in our lives when we get too busy or too focused on what's next. I find that the more I stop and notice beautiful little things that God is doing in my everyday life, the more he starts to move big things. And when he starts to move big things in your life you get really excited, and you wonder why you ever chose to live without him during the earlier part of your life.

I wish I had gotten to know God when I was even younger than 23, but the best thing about living my life without God for 23 years is that I know the difference. People who grew up in church don't fully understand what it feels like to live your life without any connection to God. I lived the first two decades of my life without God. I know what it feels like to have a black hole inside your heart that nothing can satisfy. A space inside my heart that was built for God and that would continue to make me restless no matter how many goals and dreams I would accomplish. I know what it feels like to carry around an emptiness on the inside even when your life looks great on paper. Nothing but God himself can fill that black hole.  I would never ever want to go back to living my life separated from God.

The funny thing is that I had a good life before God, my childhood was perfect. I've always had loving friends and family around me and I've never experienced any abuse or trauma in my life but still nothing compares to living life with God. The human soul can conquer and overcome a lot of things when we walk through life with God, but if we find ourselves separated from God even the smaller problems in life can become big obstacles. Obstacles that keep us separated from joy, peace and fulfillment in life.

Okay I better stop now because I could keep writing this text until it's 100 pages long. Happy Tuesday everyone! Enjoy this glorious day!

Our Addiction to Entertainment

“We were made for wonder, but we’ve settled for entertainment. God built us to crave true, fulfilling joy. But for many of us, that God-given craving for heart satisfaction has driven us past God Himself, who was meant to be the fulfillment of those desires, toward a drug that dulls the ache of dissatisfaction and disappointment but never truly fulfills us.

I have a new purse that still makes me a little happy when I look at it. It is okay if I spend some money on a purse—and I did spend a bit too much on it. But it’s not necessarily a sin to spend too much on a new purse.

The sin is that I think it is going to satisfy some craving in me, apart from Jesus.

We’ve traded the wonder and satisfaction of a deep relationship with our Creator for Netflix, social media, and a new purse.”

Jennie Allen in her book “Nothing to Prove”.

What if our social media addiction and overconsumption of TV shows is just a symptom of a deeper root cause: the lack of a close relationship with God in our lives? I can not count the amount of times that I have used entertainment to escape my negative feelings. TV shows are my favorite escape. The last thing I want to do when I’m having a bad day or when I’m arguing with my husband is seek God’s counsel. I don’t want to spend time with God when I’m feeling angry or disappointed. It’s always so tempting to just escape for awhile and binge watch TV or spend a few hours on social media.

This is what I’ve learned so far: binge-watching TV feels good for a little while, but sooner or later I will have to face reality again. I often end up feeling even worse when I escape my problems through entertainment, because once I must face reality again I haven’t gained any wisdom. It’s hard to turn to God when I’m angry, sad or disappointed but every time I choose Him over entertainment I end up being grateful that I did. There have been multiple times when I’ve argued with my husband that I’ve gotten exactly the wisdom I needed when I’ve chosen to turn to prayer instead of TV.  

The biggest reason I want to choose TV over prayer when I’ having a bad day is because TV offers amusement but God offers truth. Sometimes I come to God in prayer saying something like this: “God I’m having a bad day, I need your help. Did you see the way my husband was talking to me when we argued? He’s being an idiot!” God’s answer often sounds something like this: “Are you being respectful, kind and loving in your actions right now? No. I’m going to need you to be the first one to say sorry. Don’t worry about your husband. You need to focus on your part in this argument.” Do you see why I’d rather choose to binge-watch TV? The truth stings sometimes. When I choose to escape reality through entertainment I can continue to be stubborn and full of pride. When I seek God’s counsel through prayer it’s impossible to not be humbled.

Marriage is not for You

Everything from Disney movies to romantic comedies has taught us that marriage will bring ultimate happiness and fulfillment to our lives. Anyone who is married can testify to the fact that this is untrue. One reason marriage will not bring us ultimate happiness is because we marry a human-being, not a fairytale prince/princess. Real people are really messed up, we all are. We have fears and bad habits that our significant other will have to "embrace".

Marriage wasn't created by God to make us happy, but to point to what God's love for humanity looks like. A healthy and joy filled marriage is a picture that God created to point to what His love for us looks like. It's a love that never ends. It's a love that is patient, kind and not self-serving. It's a love that perseveres through hardship.

Marriage can certainly bring happiness to our lives but if we think that happiness is the point our marriages will suffer and probably end up in divorce. True love doesn't say: "what can he/she do for me?" True love is focused on serving the other person. True love will always include self-sacrifice. In a relationship where there is no self-sacrifice at all there is no real love. We will love few people on Earth as much as our own children and every parent knows that a lot of self-sacrifice is involved in parenting. Real love is not self-serving.

When you have two people in a marriage who are both focused on serving their spouse, not on getting what they want out of the relationship, you will see a marriage that flourishes. When I'm fully committed to serving my husband and meeting his needs and he is fully committed to serving me and meeting my needs we both end up happy. On the other hand, if we both choose to focus on making ourselves happy in the marriage we will end up competing with each other and have a lot of conflict. God loves humanity so much that he came down himself to die for all our sins. When I choose to model what Jesus did, to die to my own selfishness and choose an others-focused life I flourish.

You'd think that if I make my own happiness my main focus in life that would make me happy, but it doesn't. We were not created to live isolated lives but to live in community with others. When you have a community full of people focused on their own happiness, it makes sense that you will not see a lot of love in that community. When I learn to live an others-focused life and surround myself with a whole community full of people who are also focused on serving rather than getting, I end up surrounded by real love.

Vicki's Search for Meaning and Purpose

Growing up in New York City, Vicki had always thought that being rich, famous, and in Women's Wear Daily would bring happiness and fulfillment. But after all those things had happened, she was still empty. Gnawingly so. Watch her story and discover how this gnawing emptiness was finally filled.

Contentment in a Driven World

In a culture that emphasizes achievement and success, seeking the approval of others can be an endless and exhausting pursuit. Erin Fonner reflects on how true contentment and fulfillment come from being connected to the source of life.

My Story

Louis Cole lives in London in the UK and does work with youth at risk. Louis' goal in life is to be "the best Louis I can be" and to encourage other people. Louis Cole has realized that there's incredible fulfillment in working with the people who have been rejected by society and in trying to encourage and inspire others, to be a good role model. What a loving and awesome guy this young man is! :)