This is your time.

As said before, music has such a huge impact on my life. For most of my life, I never really paid much attention to the lyrics in music or the stories that they often tell. Not because I made the conscious decision to just not pay attention to them, but because I'm an instrumentalist so I pay much more attention to rhythms, meter, instrumentation, etc. Then I met my band mates and they opened my eyes to how lyrics are just as much an important part of the song as instrumentation. Ever since, I've understood that can lyrics speak in ways that normal sentences cannot. 

I've talked about transitions I'm going through right now. This has made me realize that there is a time for everything in life (the general theme of my post). With this thought, I recall a song by the band "Between the Trees" called "A Time for Yohe". The chorus goes like this: 

This is your time to weep

This is your time to mourn

Not yet time to build up

Just a time to tear down

Old walls

The chorus of the song bears a striking resemblance to a verse in the Bible. Not too many individuals know it, but Christianity is a pretty important part of my life. I'm not perfect at it by any means what-so-ever, but I find a great deal of meaning in reading what the Bible has to say. Ecclesiastes 3 says the following: 

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven;

A time to be born, and a time to die

A time to plant, and a time to uproot

A time to kill, and a time to heal

A time to tear down, and a time to build

A time to weep, and a time to laugh

A time to mourn, and a time to dance

A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them

A time to embrace, and a time to refrain

A time to search, and a time to give up

A time to keep, and a time to throw away

A time to tear, and a time to mend

A time to be silent, and a time to speak

A time to love, and a time to hate

A time for war, and a time for peace

Without going too in-depth, both of these passages, song and book, remind me that we go through trials and tribulations in this life. There are speed bumps in the road to slow us down and help us re evaluate where we're going, who we're becoming. Each experience, whether we see it as a blessing or curse, is something that we can take away from, learn from. I don't always keep this in perspective. With the bad, I will remember to take bits of good with me. 

Hindsight is always 20/20. I've been in circumstances where I'm not happy with decisions I've made. Again, I'm far from being perfect. But in the end, I'm happy to say that I've taken something from those experiences and helped shape the better person I try to become every day. 

On that note, I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes. It comes from author Matthew Kelly. I have it printed on a piece of paper, stuck to my wall so that I see it in the morning when I'm getting ready for my day. Maybe you think its cheesy that I do this,  but I think it helps me start off the day on the right foot. Kelly poses this simple question to himself each day: 

"What will it take today for me to become the better person I know I can be?"

I want to challenge each of you (whoever reads what I have to say) to do all you can every day to be the better version of yourself that you know you are capable of being. After all, as the Jon Foreman from Switchfoot asks in one of his songs, "This is your life. Are you who you want to be?" (ok enough with the quotes now). 

This was a bit heavy. But its been on my heart recently and I felt like sharing it. Until next time. Peace.