Jesus....Music.

“And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast. 1Peter 5:10

I saw this verse on someone else’s blog this morning and thought it to be very appropriate for my life as of late. Last week I battled one of my “flare ups”, for lack of a better terminology, of SAD (seasonal affective disorder). I get these about twice a year, and I never really know exactly what the trigger is or how long it will last. I have so many ups and downs that I generally stop thriving just to survive for a week. The weeks when this happens feel like an eternity. It’s exhausting, to say the least. I had a major downer this past summer, which happened to make its appearance at the same time as my summer vacation. On top of that I had a major sinus infection and allergies going on, which was in no way any help in the matter. I will probably go to my grave feeling incredibly terrible about ruining that time for the other people I was with. Anyways….back to the bible verse I found this morning and what I meant to write about..

Generally when I am having a bad day, if I am sad, angry, stressed, feeling any sort of emotion out the ordinary for me, I turn to Christian music. I put in one of my various mixed CDs, turn on the KLOVE radio station, or find something on Pandora to listen to. Nine times out of ten this works to calm me down and bring me back to reality. That being said, I have had my Pandora on a Jars of Clay station since about 9 o clock this morning, precisely the time when my day went to crap. Today has been one of those “I should’ve stayed in bed” days. But I have been powering through it and am in much better spirits than I was about six hours ago. I was so angry that I was shaking; all job related, which hasn’t happened more than a couple of times in the nine (holy cow, it’s almost been a year already!!) months that I have worked here.

I am definitely not the most perfect Christian out there, but I am proud to be one, and I am not afraid to admit that. I don’t go to church every Sunday, I don’t read the Bible often, I probably break more than one of the 10 commandments on a regular basis (I have a bit of a potty mouth, especially when I’m upset), and I don’t always live by the “golden rule”. I do pray daily, I forgive those that hurt me (well…99% of the time), I go to church way more often than Christmas and Easter, and I try to live the best I know how. Also, I am not afraid to die. This is something that surprises a lot of people. I know a lot of people are very afraid to leave this Earth. Not me. In fact, I look forward to the day when I get to leave this Earth and live my life of eternity in the most amazing place in the world. Obviously, I am a firm believer in heaven. Now, I’m not saying that I am “excited” to die, because I am young and I have a lot of life to live, a lot of things to see and people to meet!

To sum it all up, a little bit of Christian music can go along ways in my world. I’m glad I stumbled upon that bible verse today, because I needed that reminder that although He may let me suffer for a little while, it’s never too long. Besides, what fun would life be without any struggles to make you appreciate everything you have a bit more?