Sharing Joy

First of all, I wanted to look back over the past 365 days in my life. This has been a wild ride and an incredible year. I feel like I'm treating this as New Year's but summer time is around the corner and it will be the start of my final year as a kid before I head out and start paying some bills. Right now, I'm one exam shy of wrapping up my 3rd year of college. This time last year would have been the beginning of my summer vacation. At this point, I felt like I had been living life the same way over the past two years. I was just so complacent and stagnant in everything. I never looked outside the box to see the world around me. My life was more of a day-by-day routine.

My life changed a lot shortly after summer started. I made a huge decision that has affected me greatly spiritually as well as challenging me to grow up and really be a man. This was the first step of really opening my eyes to see that I needed to stop living for just myself. I needed to serve others. Life's not about pleasing myself.

Since then, I've been able to pursue my dreams even more. I've been able to write tons of music and even record some. Music is where my heart is. What's been so awesome is that I've been able to channel what I've seen into music. I've started to see more of the injustice in the world and the fact that so many people around me are missing the point. So many don't see the Love that they've been shown and they take each day for granted. I wish I could illustrate to everyone the things I've understood so that they can start to realize these things and how important it is to not put yourself first all the time.

None of this is what I wanted to say today. I wanted to put my thoughts into words regarding something that I read earlier today. I'm reading a book called Boy Meets Girl, by Joshua Harris. The book is about the 'proper' way to date when preparing for marriage. There's no way I'm ready for marriage, especially after reading this book, so I'm going to enjoy my time as a single for now until "my lady" shows up.

Harris wrote something that made me realize a ton of stuff that I've never thought of before. He writes, "Doesn't a sunset that you're able to marvel at with a friend seem even more beautiful than the one you watch alone? When we share something with others, we increase our own enjoyment." I've never thought about this in this way, but it's so true because you have someone there to share the beauty with.

Although this is referring to including your family more in your joy during your courtship/engagement, I took it more generally. I was thinking about hilarious videos that I've watched on YouTube lately with some friends. (YouTube is awesome, we all know) Some of them I thought were so funny were not so funny the next time when I watched them again by myself. It was because of sharing the experience with others. When you see a really good movie, the kind that changes people's lives, you want to find out who all of your friends has watched it. Even though you watched it separately, you can share the goodness of the movie when you talk about it. This causes you to appreciate the movie even more.

More than this, it got me to thinking about when I discuss Jesus' Love and how He's been working in my life. He's done nothing but show me just how crazy He loves us (read the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan. I blogged about it a few months back.) It's awesome when you start to realize just what he did for each of us. Not too long ago, I was trying to define the word 'atonement' with a friend. From that conversation, I comprehend a little more of what was done for me. Sharing with each other is such a great time to be able to spend. This is one thing that we are called to do. It builds into each other. And above all, it will leave you feeling more joy than any YouTube video can put in your heart.

Love God and Love People!!