January 29, 2001

Monday

"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade"

the longer you live life, doesn't it seem like there's more and more you just don't know about? i mean there exists a life so much deeper than we can ever begin to imagine. 

it just kills me sometimes...i mean, sol was the wisest man on earth (i suppose second to jesus...) but i mean he got it right and haha! look at me calling him sol...as if we were friends or something.... anyways King Solomon let us know that as the smartest man he thought that life was meaningless (that is if you don't have Meaning aka God)...

i talked to a friend today who was having a difficult time in this world...i mean, who wouldn't? unless you've been 'lucky' all your life, i'm sure you've had hating it moments and i don't mean "oh no! my gpa went below 3.6!"...i mean the kind where you can't breathe cause your heart hurts so much and all you want is for your life to no longer exist...all you can do is pray that the pain will stop because you can't handle it...where you don't want to open your eyes into this reality because all you see is pain staring you in the face. pain and disappointment. i suppose some of you may think...dude, can you not be such a drama mama and deal with it like the rest of the world? but if i could let you into the minds and hearts of some people i've talked to in the past few years....i promise you'd be in tears yourself ....anyways... 

the fact of the matter is, some people in this world have a lot more lemons than others (from the saying, if life hands you lemons, make lemonade - some people have a lot more issues than others, but its how you deal with it....). some people can make gallons and gallons of a nice dangerous citric acid with the amount of lemons they get dealt. so here's my analogy - God is the lemon hander outer and we're the receivers. to an extent, non-believers never got any lemons...people who worship other gods received oranges, or even grapefruits and perhaps sects of "christianity" got limes! 

anyways, so long as you get a lemon, you can enter the...um....i dunno, the kingdom of lemons...anyways... the point is, whether or not you have 234,536,345,634,978,745 lemons or just one, you'll be allowed in. for those people who suffer a lot in this world, like the friend that i talked to today, i'm sure that the sourness of life has just been too much.  they can't seem to keep up with all the lemons they're getting.  they're drowning in lemons cause they don't have enough energy to keep up and make lemonade. 

i know that this friend will be okay in the end. 

my friend knows this as well. but i think it's just the struggle that's hard... 

i mean, we were discussing whether or not it would be better to have been dealt just a couple of lemons...a few people we know seem to have had pretty nice lives thus far...and they'll admit that they've had it pretty easy...my friend was saying it would have been nice to be like one of these people.... yeah. i think it would. 

BUT

i think it's great that this friend has been given this burden. in a twisted way, this friend gets to make more lemonade. in the end, God has given us lemons to make lemonade with. and people who have just one, can still make lemonade. but this friend of mine will be able to hand over a few pitchers of the stuff. so to that friend - i can only say that i want to encourage you...dude, if anything, i understand that sometimes, it gets straight up tiring!!!! i personally feel like i wasn't made to truly succeed in this world, but technically, i guess we're supposed to be rejected in it. 

some people make lemonade really really well. just to let everyone know, i suck at making lemonade but i think God wants me to have lots and lots of practice so i can improve...sometimes i can whip out some lemonade, it tastes alright to my surprise (if you follow the recipe, it usually comes out good). other times my lemons rot!!! haha. i just ignore them and they rot. but then they start smelling and guess what! i can't make lemonade with it anymore cause it went bad. i can only learn that next time, hurry and make lemonade! and then there are times when i add too little sugar. so i won't want to even taste it cause it's bitter, i mean, i already know it's gonna be bad. and then, i might add too much sugar. but then, you can't taste the lemons! only the sugar...ugh!!! aren't you glad that God gives us so many chances? thank goodness for mercy and grace....haha.

recipe book - bible

too little sugar - too little faith

too much sugar - too much self dependence (haha! my worldly sweetness...)

sometimes it's hard to let people know that you're struggling a lot cause you get the feeling that people will look down on you cause you can't handle it...or they'll think you may not be depending on God enough...but ultimately, we're all 'struggling' for the same reasons with the same goal so i guess we can all give each other tips on how to make better lemonade. but i hope no one gets cocky that they're lemonade tastes really good (cause then you gotta be careful, it might be store-bought...aka artificial...haha those preservatives will kill you - literally) 

ultimately - let's all help each other make lemonade. 

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