Hopes and Dreams

When we are children we often have such incredible dreams for our lives. Ask a six year old what they want to be when they grow up and you are likely to get an answer like astronaut or princess. Ask a child a few years later and you will probably start getting answers like artist and doctor. But a few years after that...

"Children are wonderfully confident in their own imaginations.
Most of us lose this confidence as we grow up."

Sir Ken Robinson

For too many of us we lose sight of our dreams as we grow older, as the reality of life sets in we lose our magic. As someone who has recently stepped out into the world after high school I know that the pressures of life are tough, you need to start providing for yourself and for your future family. I myself cannot wait to have a family of my own, but at what cost? We seem to think that we need to give up what excites and interests us in order to live a safe life. But life isn't safe. You can hide behind your nine to five job and your high brick wall but life is out there, and it will get to you.

I have watched divorces unfold before me, cancer rip loved ones from me, and depression claim lives of those very close to me. Yes, life is rough, but hiding behind your walls, trying to play it safe, won't do you any good. You'll just be limiting the greatness of your life to try and avoid a valley or two. Don't let fear take away the joy of life; it's never too late to follow your dreams.

"It doesn't matter where you are, you are nowhere compared to where you can go."

Bob Proctor

There are so many great things life has to offer, if you only know how to look for it there is so much beauty in the world. We encounter movies and books that have great stories and tales yet we are too scared of the cost, we are ruled by fear. As someone who has recently let go of the fear of living a safe life let me tell you it is something else entirely to live a fearless life. Waking up in the morning knowing that the day holds endless possibilities and blessings, finding the good in life and living it without restraint, knowing that life can throw whatever it will at you and there is still so much to live for and be excited about, it is a divine feeling that I cannot imagine leaving behind now that I have experienced it.

"If you listen to your fears, you will die never knowing
 what a great person you might have been."

Robert Schuller

I cannot capture, in words, the feeling of pure joy you feel when you completely let go of the fear that is holding you back, even if it's subconsciously, but it is something you need to experience yourself. The feeling is complete freedom and joy, smiling like a fool because there is just so much to live for and be excited about and it's all at your fingertips if you'll just reach for it.

So don't give up on your hopes and dreams, with God helping you there is very little that you cannot do. Let us become generations that change the world, that shift the distorted paradigm of society. It starts with you and me. I have been living a life completely with God, working towards me hopes and dreams, and it just gets more magical every day. So go out there, let go of your fear, and live the life you've always wanted to.

Jem.

"Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. 
Don't wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future."

Earl Nightingale

"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it.
The time will pass away."
Earl Nightingale

Living a Happy Life

Happiness is an interesting concept. In my younger years I thought that doing what is right and doing what makes you happy were unrelated. I viewed what had to be done as a duty and what made me happy as a game.


As I grew up I started to make a barrier between what I enjoyed and what I needed to do. School and church needed to be done but hanging with friends and playing Xbox was just messing around. In the earlier years of high school I remember serving at church and not enjoying it at all, why did I need to do these things that made me want to be elsewhere? School was much the same for me, to where I seldom cared much for my grades. I remember talking to a old school friend about it, about why it was it was not fun to do the things I needed to do. Christy Long, bless her sweet soul, told me that God gives us a passion for the work He wants us to do. While I liked the idea I thought that it could not be so simple and easy. There was what you had to do and there was what made you happy, and seldom did the two mix.

Due to this warped paradigm I felt I needed to choose between fun and right. I would cover the basics of what was right to do but then I would do what was fun. As I'm sure many of you are thinking this caused many problems in my life, the foremost of which was that I was not truly happy with my life. I went off to boarding school with this mindset. I was not in a great place in my life and so I decided that I would spend the next few years doing what was right while I tried to figure out what I wanted from life and what God wanted from me. I worked hard on my academics, I started to train and eat healthily, I started to serve at Christian Fellow at our chapel (as well as starting my own life-group in my boarding house), I spend over an hour a day trying to connect with God and understand life better. I devoted myself to this cause, regardless of how I felt. I busied myself so much that I seldom had time to relax.

I learnt a lot in that first year, about God, about life, and about myself. I opened my eyes to the world and learnt all I could. Then, at the end of the year, the Christian Fellowship committee went on a camp, a camp that changed my life. Over the long weekend I realised that there was so much more to life, that I could do so much more for the world and for God through my life. I won't go into the details but God shifted my paradigm to see so much more than I had been seeing. While I realised that I could do so much more with my life I still saw doing what was right and doing what made one happy as somewhat different things.

A year later I finished up school and moved back to the mother city, Cape Town, where I immediately started serving in both the junior and senior youth at my church, Edge Church Melkbos. After a while I was forced to choose a ministry to serve in as I could not properly devote myself to both. I love the teenagers and can connect with them so much better, so naturally the senior youth was my first intention. As I prayed and asked God for His guidance I saw that I was needed much more at the junior youth. I asked God if this was what He wanted of me and I felt that it was. So I said good-bye to the great Fusion (senior youth) team and joined the EPIC (junior youth) team fully. I do not enjoy the grade 4-7 age group very much but that is where I felt God calling me, where He wanted me.

I have tears in my eyes as I type this, as I think about what God did in my heart next. I started to become unhappy serving at EPIC as the children are an age I have never really enjoyed and the team is a bunch of young teenagers who can be more chaotic than the kids. During one of my quiet times, bringing it before God, I was reminded what dear Christy has said to me many months before: God gives us a passion for the work He would have us do, if you don't enjoy what you're doing it's probably not right for you. Within a few weeks I found that I looked forward to youth on a Friday, that I had a passion inside me for the kids and teenagers that I couldn't explain. Months later I now co-lead the youth with a lovely lady, Liane Badenhorst, and I would do just about anything for the kids and for my team.

I have always had a heart for kids and children's ministry, I suspect growing up as one of 18 very close cousins has something to do with it, but the passion God has put within my heart for these kids is beyond anything I thought possible. My week is often made on a Friday night at youth or a Sunday morning at church with the kids.


I apologise for sharing so much of my story, I did not intend to, but I think some backstory helps get the point across. These are ramblings after all, what're you going to do about it? This is only to help me, and a few others out there who I think need it.

It makes me sad when I see someone doing something because they feel they must instead of out of passion and interest. The past month I have been getting so many confirmations of this. My co-worker and I, Brent Waldeck, each get a quote every day that we share with each other. Almost every day for the past month one of us has gotten a quote about doing what makes you happy. You wouldn't really want to live an unhappy life after all would you? Choose a life which you can love and never need a vacation from.

I hope this helps at least some one understand that doing what is right and doing what makes you happy should very much be the same thing, that God will work incredible things in your life if you'll let Him.


Recently God has brought something in my life that has brought me more peace and joy than I thought was even possible. It is something I have been trusting God in for the last year, those of you closest to me will know what I am talking about. A verse that has stuck with me during this time is Proverbs 16:20, Blessed is he who trusts in the Lord. Oh, how I have been blessed. It has not been easy, but most days I find myself walking around with a smile that I can't get rid of. What He has done for me in my life makes me feel whole, like everything is right...

I hope that one day you too can have God bless you like He has blessed me, that He makes you happy beyond comprehension, all you need to do is trust in Him.


I will never let go of this.

Jem.

"It is not the load that breaks you down. It's the way you carry it."

Lou Holtz

Trials and Tribulations

So to start off my 'ramblings' I'm going to start on a topic that is not discussed or spoken of very much, yet has a huge impact in our lives and our growth. Trials and tribulations (or struggles and difficulties for the less literate) are things that happen to everyone at different stages of life, in varying degrees.

We each have our own mountain to climb, our own secret struggle. Whether you are struggling with not having many friends at school or struggling to have a baby with your spouse we all face different struggles. To each of us our struggles often feel like more than we can handle. I often hear people struggling with things I once struggled with and I think it really isn't that bad, and then there are people who I hear are going through much more than I think I could even begin to understand. But to each of us our struggles are the biggest, our mountains are the highest, our giants are the strongest. It just goes to show you how much perspective changes things. If I think about when I struggled to make friends in primary school and compare that to a mother who has lost her husband and children making friends seems like the silliest thing ever, but at the time I felt like it was the end of the world. Perhaps this changes as we grow up but I think it all depends on perspective. We all-too-often only look at things from our limited perspective.

While difficult times are almost never happy times in our lives we should be grateful for them, for it is through difficult times that we grow and better ourselves. Without my struggles to make friends I'd probably just be a normal socialiser, but because I had to struggle with it I now have no trouble making friends or meeting new people.

Finding joy and happiness in these times is not an easy thing to do at all, but I think that just depends on perspective. You can see that you are struggling and things are difficult, or you can see that there are hundreds of wonderful things to find happiness in as you grow, to see the beauty in the suns rays or the waves upon the sand. Happiness may be difficult to come by in these times but joy is finding happiness in the situation. God helps a lot with that. If you are not Christian and do not know what I am talking about maybe you should look into it but my brothers and sisters will know the joy and peace His presence brings.

As I have fought through this last year it has only been with His strength that I have gotten through this. I thought it was over now, that the season was changing, but even if it is not I have His love in my life. No one can take away the love He has given me. All it takes is the right perspective to see. I am so grateful for all that He has blessed me with. All it takes is faith in Him and reliance on His goodness.

I hope that one day you also see that perspective changes everything. You cannot always be happy, but you can find joy in the goodness of God and His world.

Jem.

"You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them."

Unknown

Introductions are in Order

Life is full of surprises and changes. For this reason I have decided to create a second blog to talk about things more of my mind than my actual life. My first blog, found here, is sharing the journey I am walking so that those far and wide who would like to keep up-to-date with my life can. But now that I will no longer be going overseas to study just yet that blog will not be as needed, I will still update it whenever I have news to share with the world but I'd like to take a new approach to my blogging now as things change.

Due to inspiration from a very close friend's blog, found here, I have decided to create a blog to ramble my inner thoughts in a way to help me process things. Those of you who know me well enough will know that I have a strong distaste for lies. I would like to be vulnerable and open in my blogging here, I apologise if anything I say comes off as rude or offensive. I will not lie but nor will I be completely open about everything in my life, as it would be foolish for me to do so. Non-the-less I will be vulnerable through these words as they will mostly be my raw thoughts, joys, and struggles, I ask you to be kind when you read my words to follow.

Jem.