Chasing the Lion

I recently discovered a book that speaks my language. It reflects exactly how I feel in a way that I perfectly understand. I discovered it through the wonderful, beautiful women I lived with this summer. Women who taught me how to live and how to dance without shame and without fear.


We live in a world where we are often left waiting for the next best thing to come around. The next season of life is always expected to be better then the last. Always waiting for more. That's what we do, never content with what we already have. The movies have painted pictures in our heads of moments that define us and change us forever, so we wait for those moments. This is where it gets complicated.


There is a cliche that discusses the fact that our lives are defined by moments, by big events. However, if all we are doing is waiting around for these 'moments' when will they actually happen? It's like when I'm eating french fries and I strategically choose which french fry to eat next and I save the ones that look the best so I can eat them last. For some reason I think that it will actually taste better later in my meal. Usually what happens is that I don't ever get to eat the best french fries that I carefully set aside because I am no longer hungry. I wasted my time eating the not so great french fries thinking that what was to come later would be better, but all I end up with is a plate full of good uneaten french fries that go into the trash.


What this all means is simply that we all need to work on eating the last french fry first. Stop waiting and live life. "Your life, right now, today, is exploding with energy and power and detail and dimension, better that the best movie you have ever seen (Shauna Niequist)." Stop waiting around for these moments, make them. The time is now. The women that I lived with this summer and I would call this 'Chasing the Lion.' God has given us so many blessings and life, life that is meant to be lived. We have to go out and run after Him. This may look like running through sprinklers on the football field at night with your mom or spontaneously going to the beach with your mom and your sister simply because you can, or deciding to wake up at 5:30 a.m to go hike 14,000ft. up Mt. Yale with 9 girls you live with.


Life is happening all around. It is when we choose to celebrate the life we are given that we find true joy and peace. It is when we Chase the Lion that we get closer to the Lion Himself and it is with Him that the heart of life beats.