You Can't. Always Get. What You Want.

I've got a thing for basing my blog posts off of songs.

A friend of mine recently told me something that we've learned from each other. He said, "Get what you need before you try to get what you want." And I chuckled to myself because I immediately started singing the Rolling Stones song in my head. He was being serious, though, and I completely agree with him. It's the only strategy that makes sense; it's the only way to actually get what you want.
As our conversation progressed, we asked each other: What do you want?
I've been asking myself that a lot lately.

But maybe my focus is off.
Maybe I should really be asking myself: What do I need?

Psalm 37:4-5 is a good start. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act.

That's all there is to it...! HE WILL ACT. God will act. He will give me what I need. And after that, He'll give me the desires of my heart. All I need to do is be content in Him. To rest in Him and put my trust in Him, not anybody or anything else.

I feel like I've just had a light bulb moment. It all just makes sense. I've been placing so much of my trust on myself, others, and earthly things that I've started to believe that they can give me what I want and what I think I need. They don't know what I need! God knows.

And placing all your trust into anyone or anything other than God is...a dead-end. And hitting that dead-end hurts. I was in that position of hurt before I heard those words come out of my friend's mouth. Get what you need before you try to get what you want.

So, what do we need? Well I'll spare you the Sunday School answer and just let you ask yourself...what do you really, truly need?

Peace.

Video Killed the Radio Star

Oh-ah-Oh!

Video killed the radio star,
Video killed the radio star...

You're singing it, aren't you? That catchy 1981 hit by The Buggles takes 2 seconds to get stuck in our heads, about a minute to get annoying, and a day or two to stop singing or humming it.
I know I've been singing it for a couple of days.

Really, I can't explain why I usually have a month or more between blog posts. I guess I'm more of a writer than a typer. But my summer so far has been...a transition of sorts. And those types of things are difficult to put into words a lot of the time.

I suppose I should fill you in on how I'm doing with my new diet and exercise system.
Ummm...
Well it's not as...intense as it was when I last blogged. :) Intense, meaning, that when I first started and blogged about it, I was super gung-ho about it and was pretty pumped to start looking and feeling good. And I expected to have off-days and slip-ups. But I didn't expect summer to be so...like summer. Summer is much less structured than any other time of year. More barbeques, bonfires, weddings, and grad parties; less school, breakfast, work, or lunch meetings. To me that equals more junk food. It's everywhere! But despite the temptations (which I have given into much more than I would have liked this summer) I have continued to remember the list I made (in my previous blog post) on how to be more healthy.
And I feel healthier. I feel healthy which I'm positive makes me look healthy. I know I didn't look or feel healthy at all last May and the months leading up to it. I was about to hit a slippery slope of declining health and medical issues that I wasn't ready for. So I thank God for this summer and my opportunity to take it easy and really focus on my health and what I'm doing for and to my body.
"You...have a new glow about you," my doctor said to me last week. "I'm speechless. I feel like I'm looking at someone completely different than whoever walked into my office 2 months ago. I'm getting teary-eyed just looking at you!" I smiled with a full heart and was speechless as well. I felt what she was talking about. I feel different than I did 2 months ago.

Some days I'm more smiley and optimistic than others about the changes happening in my life. This week the smile is a little harder to find.

Lately I feel like my life is just change after change after change.

God, how far do you have to stretch me and change me before I can rest?

I feel like I'm getting a little change-fatigued.

The changes I've gone through in my life in the past 10 months are countless, I think.

So now the current change. The title of my blog is the name of a song I've been going over in my head for the past couple of days, and there's a reason for it: In a literal way, when music videos on MTV were released, music changed forever. Music stars could no longer just "get by" by the sound of their voices on the radio. They needed an image. They needed to have "the look" and the moves that would be just right for videos and television. A new era of music had taken the stage. And some musicians were left behind in the previous era, not able to keep up with the changes being made in the music industry, while others jumped the train on the fast track through the new era and thrived. Stars on the radio were no longer stars. Video killed the radio star.

Okay, now maybe that doesn't make any sense to you, but it does in my mind. I'm entering this new era in my life. I can't stop the train of change that is barreling down the tracks of my life, so I'm embracing it. However, some things in my life that I've been holding on to seem to no longer have a place in this new era. They seem to only belong to the previous era and are being suffocated by the changes my life holds.
And that makes me sad. A lot of love and time were poured into the people and things of the previous era. But the train just won't stop. Once music videos were released, there was no going back.
Now there's no going back.

So here I am. On this journey toward Psalm 37:3-7, and there's no stopping me. I'm still growing, learning, and discovering new things. I'm thankful for the people and things in my life so far. God is good and He will continue to be good.

Peace.