Bittersweet… What comes to mind when you hear this word?? I think of semi sweet chocolate chips. The kind that you can’t quite figure out but somehow they always leave you wanting more. Life is like this. It’s full of bittersweet moments. It has amazing highs but also treacherous lows. You can’t quite seem to figure it out. But somehow it always leaves you wanting more.
Tonight, I had dinner with 3 amazing women. We chatted about life, love, and friends. I told them about my journey and plan to launch on the World Race in September. We talked about how each of us are finally living the passionate life we wanted whether it be planning a wedding, going back to school, heading off to mission work or working with kids with Autism. We walked away from that dinner realizing that we are amazing people! What a sweet moment to share with them. We went back to my friends apt and started reading some favorite quotes out of the book “Bittersweet”. Disclaimer: I have not read the book yet but I see a blog post dedicated to it in the near future. The book is full of thoughts about living and loving the life you’ve been given. It was full of moments where you sit back and reflect wondering how you can apply this to your own life. To be able to share these precious moments with my friends is something I will cherish.
So I got to thinking, why is a life given to us by the Lord and designed to be extraordinary, bittersweet? Why can’t we just have the sweet all the time? Because that’s not how it works. God doesn’t take something beautiful and turn it into beautiful. God takes something ugly, dark, and broken and turns it into something beautiful. That’s what he takes pride in. He then uses these beautiful people to spread his love throughout his kingdom. A common theme that has stuck with me through the race has been “God doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifys the called.” This is so true. God chooses to take those people who have led a bittersweet life, full of highs and lows; laughter and tears; happiness and sorrow; and chooses to qualify them to spread his extraordinary love. What better way to show Gods love to others than by using someone who was rescued by it during their bitter stages of life? Food for thought right there!
