third.

my heart longs to write; yearns to write. lately though, while i have desired so much to write of the amazingly incredible blessings the Lord is placing in my life, i have decided to keep it hidden. after all, some things are better left to sit and dwell in my soul :)

so every time i sat to write, i kept wanting to share with you the things that i really want to keep for me, and every time i tried to write something different, ...i just couldn't. so i waited.

then, almost like a lightening bolt, the Lord pulled into my heart the book of Lamentations. (if you haven't read it, i pray that you will. if you have, then you are probably parallel with me how great it is.)

As i read, though, i began to realize that i really don't know anything about the history behind Jeremiah writing the book. so i found this website online that sort of explains bible stuff. I found that the book is a lot sadder than i thought. I've always read it and then been blessed by the part about waiting and how great the Lord is, but I failed to see the beginning of the book and the significance behind it. Basically, Jeremiah is writing about Jerusalem and how they have failed to obey God. The sins of Jerusalem have made the people become like slaves and the once thriving city has become run down and people have stopped coming. This really got to my heart because I know that my sin causes me to be enslaved, and that when I live my life in sin, my thriving life becomes dead. This broke my heart. After all, God does not want us to be slaves to sin, He wants us to live lives of love, passion, and faithfulness to Him.

So I stopped reading Lamentations and decided to just ponder over the city of Jerusalem and the things that had happened. I began to realize that so much of my life ...sometimes...is like Jerusalem. God told them over and over to follow Him - to obey Him - but they didn't. He asked them over and over to do what He said - but they didn't. He blessed their city and allowed it to thrive ...yet when it was time for things to change - when He came to them and lovingly put them in their place,... they chose to live how they wanted to. So he simply stopped letting their city thrive. hmm... i pray that I never get to that point - that I always choose to follow the Lord; to do what He's asked of me...

A friend told me the other day that we are called to thrive in this world - that to simply live is not an option. I know we've heard the word "thrive" thousands of times, but I wanted to know what it really meant - so I could understand a little better. Webster says that to thrive means to " to grow vigorously; to flourish." As I've let that soak for a few days, I realized that that is so right! We tend to live our lives from one day to the next, packing each hour as full as we can with the things of this world. We "live" through appointments, meetings, classes, lunches with friends, conversations, homework, church, bible study, quiet time, prayer...and the list could go on. We "live" through these things with just enough enthusiasm to get through the "whatever" we're having to do at the moment...but very rarely do we "grow vigorously" through those things. When I look at Jerusalem and how it went from this place full of people and booming business and excitement, to a place that probably looked more like a ghost town (like those you see in the western shows), my heart overflows with sadness because so much of our lives are like that.

When we became a Christian (or when we experience a spiritual high), we started out passionately thriving. We wanted to know grow and learn and share our God with the people around us. We wanted to read the Word and pray and dive into walking with the Lord... but somewhere along the line, we got distracted by "living" and we forgot how important it was (it is) to really thrive in this world - to grow vigorously.

I heard a quote once that said, "When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you gave me".

I believe wholeheartedly that this is exactly what it means to thrive. When you live your life so that you give all you have ...every ounce of energy, every meeting, appt, class, homework, bible study, devotional, prayer...to the Lord ...when you can look back at the end (of your life, the week, the day, the hour) and say that you (that I) used everything He gave...then you (and I) step from the normal "living" of life (like the rest of the world) and enter into a place of thriving.

I don't know about you, but when people look back over my life - when I look back over each hour of each day - I don't want it to be said (or for me to realize) that I just lived my life. I don't even want it to just grow...because even when you grow a tomato plant, sometimes they don't all turn out good and wonderful... but i want my life to grow vigorously. I want passion, devotion, power, ...vigor ...

I want to thrive.