YOLO [You Only Love Once]

I realize that the title of this post is sort of ambiguous, so let me get right into it and explain what I mean.

YOLO. Definitely on the top ten trends of 2012. It usually stands for You Only Live Once, which has been disputed and talked about by Christians others who think that it's just an excuse to do stupid things. That isn't the point of this post though..I've actually used the YOLO "reasoning" in my decision-making in the past few months and found it useful. (Should I have that brownie?..YOLO! ...On the other hand, maybe I should stop..) Though yes, people can use the term to make unwise decisions, I think the concept behind it is actually sound, and (bing!) Biblical.

To me (and maybe I'm digging too much into this, but bear with me), the philosophy behind YOLO - doing things you normally wouldn't do because you only have one chance to do them - speaks of boldness, courage, and taking advantage of the time you have. I think that's absolutely where Christians should live. Too, too often, people (Christians and non-Christians alike) fail to see the big picture of their lives, and get hung up on the small things. We have to realize that our lives are very short, often shorter than we know, and we do need to take advantage of every minute we have.

This can mean different things to different people. Sometimes getting "hung up on the small things" means getting irritated with them and forgetting to be thankful. It could mean not seeing the good in people maybe as much as you should. For others, it could mean generally living in a place of timidity. That's the one for me. Looking back on my life, I'm just now realizing how timid I've always been, and how afraid (usually unconsciously) I am of stepping out. If you know me personally, you may be surprised, but I'm really not very good when it comes to being bold and taking chances.

And I say, enough. I'm tired of being timid and being afraid. As a Christian, I may not only live once, but I do live with the people I do in the circumstances I'm in once. And the truth is, I may only be able to love the people I'm around once. Does that make sense?

Now, I'm not planning on living with reckless courage from now on - being bold and courageous is not an excuse to be unwise. I think, though, that sometimes our "wisdom" gets in the way of us loving others, and in being who we truly are. To give an example, I just started a Spanish class at the college, and in the first few minutes of the class, the teacher wanted all the students to introduce ourselves and say what we're interested in, what our hobbies are, etc. We could say anything. I could have used that opportunity to say that I love Jesus - that I love worship, that I love reading my Bible; I had the floor all to myself for those few seconds. But my fear got the better of me, and instead I said something about how I like photography or something. Now, to be clear, I'm not saying that every chance we get, we should throw Jesus into the discussion or tell people how much we love to read our Bibles. I'm not saying we have to shove Christianity down everyone's throats. But in little instances like that...what did I have to be afraid of? The people in my class weren't going to pull pitchforks out of their book bags and chase me out of the classroom. My teacher wouldn't have expelled me. It would have been fine, and maybe it would have sparked a conversation about God later on.

I fully believe that God is in control, and He will work through me however He wants to. However, I also believe that in order for us to be fully used by God, we can't be standing in the back of the room, cowering. In order for us to be used by God, we have to be at the front, waiting, confident, and ready for battle.

Those who believe in God and serve Him have the Holy Spirit in them - the Spirit of the Living God. The God of all courage, of all strength. He is not the God of timidity. I personally am praying for God to give me courage - for the little things and the big things. Holy Spirit, let me be a vessel for you to flow through with your strength and boldness.

I'm only going to live here once, and I may only have one chance to love the people around me. I don't have time to be timid or afraid. Lord willing, I'm going to take God's advice in Joshua when he says, "be bold and courageous."

How about you?