How To Make The Most Out Of Life

Wow, it’s hard to believe 2020 is almost over, and yet it feels like it’s about time. Though this year has been genuinely full of hardships and has been very different than any of us have imagined, this year has taught me more than I could have ever expected.

I honestly had to learn how to live out this year because life is what you make it. This is something that my parents have always told me, but I really realized what that looked like this year, and I wanted to share what I have learned with you guys.

Life has honestly looked really different this year; things we took for granted were taken away, school, work, church, friends, pretty much everything looks different. And if I am truthful, that was a tough pill to swallow. There were times that I would just break down a cry to my mom because my junior year tennis season was canceled, or now my senior year looks crazy weird, or my church/ youth group activities were not what I wanted them to look like.

But even in my moments of tears and anger, my parents would remind me that you have to make the best about every situation, so I took a breath, wiped my tears, and set out to see what that looks like.

First, I would try to throw out all expectations; I had some strong expectations of what I thought my senior year was going to look like, and I realized that those expectations were not going to be my senior year’s reality. This applies to all aspects of life; when we have expectations of what our life will look like, it can make us not open to what God is going to do in our lives. When we seek control over our lives and try to make things go our way, we close our lives to what God can do in us.

Living with open hands, this is kind of a metaphor for not holding onto the things of this world too tightly. The things of this world will pass away. Nothing here will last for eternity, so not holding tightly to the things of this world and having our hands open to what God has for us can help us let go of those expectations and receive what he has for us. 1 John 2: 17 says, “and the world is passing along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever”. I don’t know about you, but I want to live with my hands and heart open for what God has for me and not holding on to what I think this world will give me.

Finding the joy, in many situations, it just seems like there is no good in it. And it’s true, there are a lot of situations that just honestly suck, but when we live with kingdom hearts for Christ, we can see and delight in what God has for us in that situation.

Recently I have been working on seeing and delighting in what the Lord is doing in my life daily. We can find the joy of Christ in all things because he is in all things. There are hardships and pain, but he is faithful even in stress, anxiety, fear, and hurt. Delighting in the mundane, the simple things, and the really challenging days, just trusting in his faithfulness!! Delighting in him can be a huge answer to prayer or a simple cup of coffee that he blessed you with that morning. Either way, living and rejoicing in Christ’s joy can help us see the good in situations or help us see His hand in it all.

Dwell in what is good, I don’t know about you, but there are days that I just want to curl up in my bed and feel sorry for myself and focus on all that is going wrong in my life. But life is what you make it, so if you only focus on the bad things in life, that will be the life that we make for ourselves. But if we dwell and delight in the things of the Lord and the promises he makes to us, that is the life Christ wants us to live.

Psalm 37:3-5 says, “Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act”. We get to choose to delight and take joy in his faithfulness in each and every situation; laugh, dance, find the light in the people around you even when it’s not what you wanted or expected. His ways are so much higher than what we can even imagine. Delight in the fact that he is holding your life in his hand!!

Now hear me out that doesn’t mean you put on a smile and fake it till you make it sort of thing or ignore that hurt and the pain you are walking through. Acknowledge it, bring it to the father, talk to those around you about the pain you are feeling, but know that he works in the valleys. Even in these challenging moments, we can find joy and peace in what he is doing because Jesus is bigger than anything we walk through.

We get to dwell and delight in what Christ is doing in our lives because he works even when we don’t see it. He is working in the loss, he is working in the sickness, he is working in the anxiety, he is working in the grief. JESUS IS SUPREME!!

When I say life is what you make it, I don’t mean, “oh, I can just will my life to be great”. I mean that we get to choose to delight in all things because Christ is in all things; that we get to dwell in the goodness of our father’s arms. WE GET TO CHOOSE JESUS!!

None of us are perfect; we are going to mess up, make mistakes. The enemy is going to lie to us, saying “That there is no hope” or “there is no way to find good in this” and there are going to be days that we believe him. But know that God is always there, he is still working, and we can have peace knowing that we can choose to see his joy in this crazy world we live in.

You guys, I hope you know that Jesus is in all things, and you don’t have to live this life alone. You are fully known and fully loved beyond anything you will ever imagine. Please reach out if you need anything; I would love to talk!

-Gracie K

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