How Big is Your Brave?

 We've all heard the song. (If by some chance you haven't a link to the music video is at the bottom of the post) It played on every radio station, every day for months just like every other popular song. And yet, this song has always challenged me in a way that I haven't really ever been able to put fully into words.

I was listening to Brave as I was working on an assignment for counseling last week. There has been some stuff that I have needed to process and work through that I have just not had any interest in facing up until now. The past year put me through the ringer emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and physically and I finally decided that I have had enough. I have had enough of doing everything to please everyone around me, and never putting myself first. I have had enough of letting my physical, mental, and spiritual health be all over the place. I've simply had enough. And as I have talked about with my counselor many, many times I came to the same conclusion- the only one who can do anything about all this crap is me. And so I took a step as I was sitting journaling, and I honestly thought "What would happen if I was brave?"

What would happen if I said what I wanted to say? What would happen if I was simply just me? What would happen if I was brave enough to really give up my poor eating habits? What if I was really brave enough to actually start my days in prayer? What would happen? My first thought "Well. Everyone and everything good will be gone." But what if my definition of "good" isn't accurate? I've had a lot of really "good" relationships with friends over the years. And yet, the older I get the more I realize that a lot of those relationships were unhealthy, partially because of some of my actions, and partially because of actions of friends. I truly believe my definition of "good" needs an overall. Because in reality? There are so many things I associate with being "good". We say all the time that God is good. But we also say McDonald's is good. (Don't get me wrong.... I love McDonald's but I know darn well it's not good for me.) Both cannot be good. We talk all the time about how God has "good" things for us..... But what if our definition of "good" is flawed? It scares me sometimes when people tell me that God has good things for me, because "good" has not always been "good' throughout my life. And yet, what if we really (and I mean really, seriously) took the time to reassess our definition of good? What if we were brave enough to sit down, and really ask God to show us what Good HE has for our life, and not what the world's definition of good is?

I took a huge risk this week, and I decided to open up the box of things that I haven't been dealing with emotionally in counseling. The things in the box? They aren't good. They are traumatic, painful, and ugly. Some of them are even under the disguise of good like moving away, or graduating college. But they still hold immense pain for me. And by finally letting them out the good finally gets to be what it is: Good. And the ugly goes away. The pain goes away. While it hasn't yet, I know full well it will because Jesus was brave enough to take every ounce of my pain with Him on the cross and it died 2000 years ago. I just gotta stop letting it stick around.

So here is my random thought of the day for you.... How big is your brave? Are you willing to slow down this year, and let God make your "good" actually be good? Are you willing to reassess your life, and really acknowledge that while things haven't gone as you have planned, maybe God actually can make them good? Can I challenge you? Be brave. Call the person you are fighting with. Make an appt. with a therapist. Stop eating the junk food. Challenge yourself to see the goodness of who God has created you to be. I know you are brave enough to do it!