A Rebel No More

       While driving to work, my husband and I saw trash in the middle of the street. We pulled over to clean up what looked like a simple mess, but as we got closer, we realized it was a lot worse—food, papers, and liquid all mixed together. At first, I thought it wasn’t our problem, but we decided to clean it up anyway. It was disgusting, smelly, and gross—I hated every second of it.   A few days later, while talking to a friend, I realized something important. I had done the act of service, but I complained about it the whole time. I wasn’t happy about helping out our neighbor, and I made sure my husband knew it. But then I thought about Jesus—he would have done the same thing without complaint, with kindness and a smile, simply because it was the right thing to do. Jesus is LOVE! The trash was cleaned up, and that was the best outcome for the neighborhood.    The trash was just an immediate need that had to be addressed, especially in an HOA where ...

Have you ever found yourself so caught up in the idea of "taking care of yourself" that you start to wonder if maybe the world was right all along about individualism? Like, we're supposed to be self-reliant, right? After all, society tells us it's good to focus on "me"—especially us women. We're told we don’t need anyone to make us happy, to support us, or even to take us on dates. Thanks to Miley Cyrus, we’ve been led to believe that we can dance by ourselves, hold our own hands, and buy our own flowers. I used to be all about "me." In fact, I even bought a handful of self-help books, hoping they’d boost my confidence and lead to some magical personal growth. But, here's the thing—while I was focusing on "me," I realized something: the more I focused on myself, the less I noticed the people around me. And that got me thinking... The Problem with "Me-Time": It’s Not About You, It’s About Jesus We’ve been fed this ide...