making it complicated

i tend to over-complicate my life. and usually it's because i think that life is supposed to be easier than it is. so i dive in and over-analyze. and make it even more complicated. {at least in my mind}

but why do i think life is supposed to be easier than it is? 

because that's what i've been told "the good life" is. the good life means that everything is easy and i have nothing to worry about. bad things aren't supposed to happen. not to me.

which is a giant -

and i mean GIANT -

load of 

bullsh*t.

life is hard because the world is broken, but it's also hard because if it's not hard then you're doing it wrong and missing out on a whole bunch of growth opportunities {and by you i mean me. or maybe we.}

it's not that we should be miserable all of the time, or that there shouldn't be any respite. that's false too. but. if we only live inside of our comfort zones then we don't grow. and only when we live inside of our comfort zones is the world mostly easy - and {let's face it} boring.

why is "the good life" paraded around that way? why is "the good life" called the good life? most of the people we truly admire {and remember} are not people who chose the easy path. how many people changed the world by following all of the rules of their time? why do we think this is "good"? 

hasn't history proven otherwise?

where are our blind spots? 

are we brave enough to ask those around us? 

are we brave enough to take courage and dive deep even if it means bringing something out into the light from the dark recesses of our being?

the second law of thermodynamics says that in a closed system entropy will not decrease. or, more bluntly, things will move from order to disorder. we constantly have to fight against the entropy that pushes us toward disorder.

i don't know about yours, but i feel that down deep. 

my life feels like it's spinning out of control on a lot of days. 

like the disorder outweighs everything else and all of the things on my endless to-do lists may end up swallowing me whole.

i've felt that a lot this week.

things are crazy-busy. and i'm  t  i  r  e  d.

the king of chaos constantly pushes us toward crazy. 

or at least toward busy.

because if we're too preoccupied with all.of.the.things to hear the still-small-voice

we can't love God with all that we are.

if we're too preoccupied to notice the neighbors around us,

we can't love them as ourselves.

and in our minds people stop being full people created in the image of God.

so what's the antidote? 

time with God so we don't miss his voice,

and leaving space to ask people how they are and actually listen to the answer.

what would happen if we just started there?

and stop making it so complicated.

xoxo