everything happens for a reason.

This past weekend I went on a ladies retreat with about 20 women from my church. I didn't really know what to expect, or what would come out of it. Sometimes I find that having no expectations at all can be the best thing that can happen. It opens your heart up to God, and can allow you to be more vulnerable, which is needed sometimes.

You see, this past week I had a pretty good week. But on Thursday I found out a girl I worked with at a summer camp in Florida died in a car accident on Wednesday. It shook me up, and I just couldn't get it off my mind. I still can't, but I know that God can use the worst of tragedies to teach us something, and I think that's already happening. My life saying is "Everything happens for a reason." It's become quite popular, and may be a bit cliche, but I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that everything really does happen for a reason, but it's up to us to see what we can take away from the tragedy. It's up to us to see how God will use our pain and sorrow for His glory. We can have to be willing to allow Him to work. 

I brought the pain from this tragic loss with me into the weekend, but wasn't expecting God to use it so soon. 

The theme for the weekend was "Now Is The Time". Once of the subjects that was brought up was that we need not waste any time. That we need to be on top of our game because we don't know when our time is up. This tragedy was brought to the front of my thoughts again, and it just made me realize that I really don't know when I'll be gone from this earth. I can hope I'll just die of old age, but there's a huge part of me that just doesn't believe that. Especially with all of the stuff going on in the world right now...the end is getting closer with every day that passes. I know that we don't know the day or the hour, and I'm so glad about that. If we did, I'd be walking around paranoid all the time. What I'm trying to say is that I really can't afford to waste any time. I want to be on top of my game whenever my time is up, and I don't have a minute to waste by being complacent. I can't just go through the motions. I need to walk the walk and talk the talk all the time. I know I'm human, but I'm sure going to try and be everything that God wants me to be. I don't have time to try and please people, because the only person I have to please is God. He's the one that will matter in the end, anyway.

I'm so grateful that I had this weekend to be rejuvenated and reflect on what's going on in my life right now. It was a time of great fellowship, and having God speak so personally into my life. I feel as if this was preparation for the upcoming months.