Blur- Audea [VIDEO]

30 minutes of photo preparing. 1 hour of taking photos and shooting videos. 1 hour waiting for my camera to charge back up. 3+ hours of editing. And 10 minutes to publish. The result? The video below.

Don't forget to check out Audea at http://facebook.com/audeamusic 

Love Overpowers Fear

When we were young, we would oftentimes sit on our Dad's shoulders. By getting on those shoulders, we put ourselves into a position that could really hurt us. But we did it anyway because we trusted our Daddies enough to not let us fall. When a young child gets on his/her Dad's shoulders, they do it knowing that their Dad loves them too much to let them get hurt. It's scary, but the love we know our Dad has for us overshadows that fear of getting hurt.
If we didn't let go of that fear and put trust in our Dads, then we would have never gotten up on those shoulders, therefore missing out on that experience.

The rest of life is so much like this example.

It's so easy to keep from doing something because we're scared. It's so easy to let our fears keep us from living.

My brother and I used to go to this theme park all the time. There was one specific roller coaster that he would always go on... alone. I would stand by and watch because I was so scared of riding it. He'd try over and over to persuade me to go and I would just tell him I was scared and sit on the bench while he had the time of his life. I would sit there and watch sadly, always loaded with regret that my fear stopped me from having that experience with my brother.

After multiple trips to the park, he convinced me to ride it. He dragged me through the line and got me into the seat where I couldn't change my mind anymore. I remember sitting there, waiting for the it to start while the seatbelts locked thinking "What in the world am I doing?"


That 1 minute, 30 second roller coaster ride taught me a huge life lesson.

It is now my favorite ride in the whole park. I love it. I rode it back to back that day and had the time of my life. I was so thankful after riding it, that I had enough faith in God, my brother (and the roller coaster designer) to keep me safe.

Not only that... but the ride wasn't even that scary. When it was over, I was thinking, "That was it?"


That moment taught me that I waste 99% of my life with fear. I spend SO much time being scared of what could happen that I miss some of life's greatest moments. Instead of trusting God to keep me safe and hold me up, I hide behind the fear that there's a chance I might, maybe, possibly get a little hurt.

Then, when I miss the moment, I regret it. And those rare occasions when I face my fears, I typically end up realizing that there wasn't much to be scared of in the first place.

This is true in relationships as well.  My best friend and I have this conversation all the time. We're so terrified of giving our hearts to someone or "liking" someone. We're so scared to have feelings for another human. We fear all of these wonderful feelings because we don't want to get hurt. We don't want to put all of our heart into something and then have it end up broken into a million pieces. The pain that could come out of an experience keeps us from ever even having that experience in the first place.

God is my Dad. My fear of giving my heart to someone and my fear of that roller coaster that day are both equivalent to my fear of falling off of my Dad's shoulders. Until I let go of that fear, I will never get there. I won't succeed and I won't learn to love if I don't let myself put all of my trust in the One who is holding me up. We have to figure out that God's love will always keep us safe. His shoulders are the strongest ones, and He won't let us fall off. But we'll never experience all of life's great moments, until we trust Him enough to get up there.

I can honestly say that there has not been one moment where my fear has taken over that I haven't walked away in regret. Each time I let my fears overpower my ability to live life, I spend days and weeks wishing I could go back and change it.

I am so scared of the future. I am terrified of what could happen tomorrow. BUT, I can't let that fear keep me from living my life.... because in the end, I will regret it.

My God is big enough and strong enough to keep me safe from all the hurt and the pain in the world. And if I happen to fall off of His shoulders and get a scraped knee, then it's still okay because He is there! He's there to keep me safe, but He's also there to pick me back up when I fall down.

I know He will protect me. I know this because He loves me. His love will keep me safe. And that same love is more powerful than my greatest fears.

I think I'm starting to realize that the fear of getting hurt, hurts me a lot more than what I was initially afraid of.

I feel like a tiny, short, 3 foot tall kid in a crazy crowd of tall people. I feel small and inferior and I can't see or experience much of what is going on... I'm scared. It's time for me to let go of my fears and trust my Dad as he lifts me onto his shoulders. From up there, I can see the world... and I can fully start to live and experience life. Without fear. 

It's Me

When writing papers for school, I try to stick to the facts and keep far away my personal views and opinions. This past week, I had to write a biography for a scholarship I was trying to apply for. My first draft was straight facts about my life, my education history and a little about my hobbies. The lady reviewing the applications read my biography and basically told me to rewrite it and add more about "me." Obviously, since I want a chance at the scholarship, I took this awfully seriously and ended up putting way more of myself into a "school" paper than I ever have before. It was terrifying. But I'm pretty glad to say that i'm proud of the result. I have read it out loud to myself more than 2500 times today, and I feel like I portrayed myself exactly how I want to be viewed. I figured I would share on here just the final section of the biography, which discusses my future college/career goals.

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I plan to continue my education by transferring to a University as a Psychology major. I have been a very indecisive person most of my life, never really knowing what I wanted to do. I’ve switched back and forth between various career options and majors multiple times. But, there has always been one thing that has never changed. That is my immense love for people. My heart immediately breaks when I that hear someone is going through a tough time. I hurt when other people are hurting. And I will do everything in my power to make someone smile when they’re having a bad day. I know what’s it’s like to feel insecure and worthless. I’ve experienced the feeling of hopelessness when you think that nothing you do is good enough.  It’s exactly for these reasons that my ultimate goal is to eventually work in a treatment center for girls with eating disorders, mood disorders, and addictions. It’s these girls that need someone to feel for them and these are the girls that need love the most. These are the people my heart breaks for and these are the people I want to help. I want to show them their value and turn their heartbreak and hurt into joy. People often times say they want to grow up and change the world. I feel like by helping others find joy and worth within themselves, I can do just that: change the world one individual at a time. One of my greatest inspirations is James Barnett, the founder of ‘Clothe Your Neighbor as Yourself’, which is a non-profit organization that sells t-shirts and uses the money to clothe people in need. He said it best when he said, “Only by 'doing' can we begin to offer hope and love to a world who’s cup is half empty.” If I can spend the rest of my life using what I have learned and experienced to help others then I will have reached ultimate success.