Refill with Life.

A few years back, maybe 5, I bought a shirt at a mewithoutYou show. It has a picture of three bottles filled with sideways numbers in it. and to the right of them it says, "refill with life". Everything I own fits in some duffle bags and a few suitcases and since I have moved 3 times across country in the past 3 years, a lot of my belongings somehow never make it out of the duffle bags and suitcases. one day in nashville, i decided to see what i had in one of the suitcases, and ended up rediscovering this particular shirt.

yesterday i decided to wear the shirt. and the message it exudes spoke to me louder than it has since i first bought it.

refill with life. i looked at the sideways numbers in the bottles and the words again caught my eye. the truth is, i have been struggling a lot since i left nashville. many things in my life have changed drastically, suddenly, and more quickly than i can process through. and then i find myself one and a half months from getting married, living in seattle, with real things to deal with in practical ways, and a mind that is not prepared, too backed logged, slow to function. and a person to walk with me through all of this who has to deal with more than he ever could have imagined.

i think about the numbers in the bottles. filling them up with day to day stresses, sadness, hopelessness, mundane, complacency- i mean, the world in essence.

then there is life.

John 10:10 Jesus says, "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly".

abundant life.

where else am i walking if i'm not walking with Christ in abundant life? im walking sluggishly, like the fool, missing the joy of the Lord, missing the hope of glory in Christ, missing the path of God.

my prayer is that God would "refill [me] with life" abundant life. so, i will have joy in Him. i'm learning a lot and meditating on some key Scriptures like Matthew 6:32-34 which says, "For your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is it's own trouble".

how do i erase the sideways numbers in the bottles of my soul and refill with life? seek first the Kingdom and all these things will be added to me. all the things God knows i need. not want. but need.

im ready to be free again. to experience abundant life. to wait on the Lord. for Him to renew my strength.

thanks be to God. for He is good. His love endures forever.