To live? Or to survive?

As of the current moment in time, I am a college student. Actually, to be specific, I am a very stressed college student who feels a bit overwhelmed and only has about 2 weeks left before she's a senior college student and has no clue how she's going to get it all done. That basically sums up my life right now. As a result of that, I tend to fly by the seat of my pants. I live from weekend to weekend. I do what I have to do (classes, homework, work) but I am always looking forward to the next break. I also, admittedly, have a tendency to live from nap to nap. My life is based around the next moment I get to rest, to do what I want to do, to do what's easy.

But this is so wrong on so many levels.

Christ came so that we may have life and have it abundantly. So do I really live? Or do I just survive? I survive. And that's all I have been doing for a long time.

We were created in Christ for the purpose to bring Him glory. If you look at Jesus' life, yes He took breaks. We were not created to run 24/7. We need to have time to rest and rejuvenate. But He was very purposeful and intentional about when He took His breaks and how He spent His time during the day.

As I near the end of my second year at SPU, I realize how much time I let slip because I wanted to take a nap or because I wasn't fully invested where I was. Most of the time I just was trying to make it through the day instead of enjoy the day. I didn't look for opportunities to share God's love or share in community throughout my day. While I can see the relationships I was purposeful in and worked hard to invest in them, I can also see the gap of where I failed. And that is what makes me sad. How many opportunities do I miss because I do not focus on living but rather on surviving.

What would it look like if I chose to focus on being fully and completely alive in everything that I do in a day? To not focus on the next big thing, but rather see everything as the next big thing? To purpose to gain all the knowledge I can from each of my classes, to love on people every day at work, to go do my homework with someone else so that I can just be with them and invest in them? I think that if I chose to be faithful in all of these little things, then I would not miss nearly as many opportunities. I would be able to see how God works in the day in and day out, and experience life as He created it to be. To fully live and walk with God in every moment of every day. To live in the present, not the past or the future. To live in Him and His strength, and to take captive every minute of the day to be used for His glory. If I could learn to do that, I think that my life would look very different.

"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble" Matthew 6:33-34

To live? Or to survive? That is the question. I challenge you to live.