Existential Reflections (Welcoming 2014)

Happy New Year's Eve!

Below is an excerpt from a post I published last year at this same time:

Each year is colorful and different than the one before, and I doubt 2013 will be an exception. With this year I'm sure will come new challenges, new relationships, new faces, new friends, and new experiences. However, if the whole year has gone by and I have not loved God and His people, only then would I declare the year a failure. If 365 days go by and I fail to know more about my Savior than I do in this present moment-his nature, His love, and His calling for my life-then I have not satisfied my overall goal. Ultimately, what I want most to aim for this next year is to fall more in love with God. If I achieve this, then all other areas of my life will show fruit for it, because in loving Him I am called to love His people and obey His commands. When my knowledge of Him grows more and more, then so does my love by faith through grace abound more and more. Here's to true love-one that restores souls and reaches nations. Here's to this year and all that it brings-and may it be filled with God's people striving to know Him more and more each day until the coming of Christ Jesus.

You can read the entire post here.

The gist of what I wrote last year is one that I'd like to emphasize, because I still believe the words I typed, the same concept is still true: each year, my focus should be love. I want to know God more deeply. I want to love people intentionally. I want to be the hands and feet of Jesus progressively.

Progression, the opposite of stagnant. I don't want to become stagnant. Complacent in the Faith.

He came home in a knitted sweater onesie... #classyandcute

Yesterday my sister brought a new little soul into the world, and as I held my tiny, fragile nephew up close, his body curled into the shape of a rolly-polly, all I could do was sit and marvel at the precious being in my arms. Ryan Brannan, at only one day old, was a living, breathing, beautiful creature, and even though his attention span is practically nonexistent, his dependency relies completely upon other people, and though technically he currently contributes nothing to those around him except for simply being a small butterball of cuteness, his mere existence serves as a reminder in and of itself that life is wondrous. Life is overwhelmingly complex, beautiful in various ways, and we are blessed with the gift of opportunity to live it, and what's more is this: we are given daily moments, precious opportunities, to live in love.

If we don't realize this, then what exactly are we living for?

Because the truth is, people are made of experiences. We aren't just cells.

What's ironic is that it's rare, for a soul to truly live. Too many people simply go through life and miss out on joy. Miss out on love. Miss out on growth. Miss out on seeing aspects of life as beautiful, for beauty is God's handiwork, His handwriting, His evidence.

As this New Year approaches, make resolutions (and try to keep 'em-it's not impossible). Do hard things. Try new experiences. Go places. Explore life. Cherish those around you. Allow God to pull you a little closer. Do something that grows your soul, and trust the process. God will teach you about Himself, if you let Him.

I've got a few changes taking place, my twenty-first birthday being one of them. Multiple friends of mine are either getting engaged or married in 2014 (I'm purchasing a bridesmaids dress tomorrow!!) and I'm hoping to get at least one more tattoo sometime soon. Among other expectations, hopes, and happenings are Graduate School applications, trips with dear friends, a much anticipated internship, and broadening my horizons in regards to cooking (inspired by Giada, of course). No matter what, though, the focus of greatest importance is to know more about Jesus Christ. The focus is love, it's always love.

'To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist'. -Oscar Wilde