It has now been over seven months since my most recent blog posts (or so my parents keep reminding me), something that I am not exactly thrilled about for many reasons. For those of you who have been following my journey since my first blog two years ago, you know that I pride myself in posting new material often. At the beginning, I would post once, sometimes even twice a week. As time went on, life got hectic, and these posts became biweekly, bimonthly, and so on. My parents recently asked me why I haven't written a blog in such a long time, and I simply answered "I'm working on it." Yes, the infamous phrase of procrastination. As hard as it is to believe, that statement of progress is nothing but the truth. Since January, I have thought out, planned, drafted, and ultimately trashed post after post, all of which were just not good enough to compensate for the ever-growing delay. As the trash bin grew fuller, I finally, but reluctantly, recognized that I was experiencing writer's block. Not only could I not express the ideas that I had, but I did not even have an idea that I thought was new, original, unique, and unexpected. So, even as I answered my parents that day, I had practically given up.
Perhaps one of the largest reasons for my intention to end my blog was time. As a junior in college just beginning course work for my degree, babysitting two children, creating a monogramming empire (haha just kidding), working on a really cool project (stay tuned for details, and as the kids say: "get hype") and still maintaing a social life is a tall order that would of course rule my time. I simply could not imagine writing a blog, too. This summer was not much more open, as I balanced many of the same responsibilities. So what got me here today? What got me to calm down for a few minutes to right about an idea that finally came?
In a word, the radio. This summer, as usual, I was under a lot of stress to balance everything that life threw at me/I took ahold of intentionally. My escape was Jesus. When driving in the car on my way to class, work, or Las Palmas/La Parilla (might as well have lived there this summer), I would turn on one of two radio stations that played Contemporary Christian music. This was a habit that I continued from last semester, where I would even work out to praise and worship music, because why not? One morning this summer in particular really caught my attention. The segment for the morning consisted of the co-hosts performing their usual banter as they talked about the day's hot topics, one of which was social media. If you have met me for even a minute, you will know that I am obsessed with social media of all types, I don't discriminate, so I turned the dial up. In paraphrase, one of the hosts were talking about how all they saw on their News Feeds were political candidate ads, personal rants (I mean, opinions), and videos or articles advocating change. But, get this, none of these posts consisted of action, only words. Not just words, empty words.
I think we can all agree that the majority of our social media accounts see posts just like those above: people arguing why you should choose Candidate A over Candidate B, why you should stop using resource C and change to resource D, why you should believe what they believe. The desire to make our opinions known is a human function, to go without it impossible. What makes us different than any other species is that we can communicate these beliefs in a number of ways, be it verbally or nonverbally. But not only that, we can also act on them. But are we doing this?
Those of other generations see the current one as lazy, uninterested, and unmotivated. I believe this to be somewhat true. Our problems do not stem from the lack of ideas or opinions, but rather the lack of drive to complete the process by being active in them and in ourselves. As one of the hosts said that morning, "a ton of people want to change the world, but very few want to change themselves." Think about that for a second. Wasn't it the great philosopher, Sir Michael Jackson (lol totally kidding) who said "if you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself an make a change"?
I can honestly say that I myself have fallen into this trap. People often ask me why I decided to study Communication Disorders, and every time I have answered some variation of "I want to help make the world better." I know that I am not alone in this answer; ask any healthcare professional, first responder, teacher, politician, activist, ANYONE and you have a high probability of receiving this answer. Like I said earlier, we have a drive to make a change, whether through action or words, which many of us are doing quite well. But we are missing that one vital step: making ourselves better.
Two weeks ago I was boarding a plane to and from New York City with my family and boyfriend. As part of the obligatory safety talk that the flight attendants went through before takeoff, we learned what to do in case of loss of oxygen in the cabin: "put on your own mask before you help others". At first, to me, this sounded really selfish. Aren't we supposed to be looking out for our fellow man? I thought about this for a second and realized something. How can we put someone else's mask on if we are struggling to get oxygen ourself? In more relevant terms, how can we help the world if we don't fix our problems first? Like oxygen, stability is necessary to life, be it financial, socially, physically, or spiritually. Without this stability, we stumble, fall, get hurt, and are helpless until we find the courage to get back up again. What is stability? Jesus. Passion. Ironically, sometimes change. While stability is about being comfortable, there is so much more. How do we find stability? We hit a rocky patch that opens our eyes, pierces our hearts, and makes us ultimately decide to change paths or continue to be unbalanced. The choice is completely ours.
So how do we do this, find this individual stability? First, we acknowledge that there is instability in our lives. Whether this be an addiction, a bad relationship, a lack of Jesus, we must first own up to it. Next, we look for our support: Jesus. As David wrote in Psalm 30, "Lord my God, I called to you for help and your healed me. You, Lord, brought me up from the dead and spared me." Isaiah 7:9 also says "if you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all." Then, we make the change that needs to be made. As 2 Corinthians 3 says, " and we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the spirit", when we look to the Lord, we are renewed, redeemed, and revitalized. Finally, the step we have all been waiting for, we move someone else. We use our experiences to bring reality into the training. We don't stop trying. We are not only called to have an opinion, but to put it in action as the Lord would. Colossians 3:23-24 says, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters...It is the Lord Christ you are serving."
One of our greatest gifts is the ability to think and act according to our thoughts. We may be individuals, but we are not too small to make that change that the world needs. As Paul wrote to the Ephesians: "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes...therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people" (Ephesians 6:10-18). Notice the order of his commands. Be strong in the Lord. Put on the armor of God. Stand firm. Pray. All of these steps are necessary to produce change. The question is now, are we ready to change ourselves first? It's not enough to just be "working on it" like I was a few months ago. Do the work now, fully.
Love, peace, and many thanks,
Emily