rebelling against low expectations
Tears. Again and again. Fear. Fear that the vicious cycle will send you tumbling off your feet once more. Friendships involve edging out of the shadows and into the piercing light. Friendships involve risk. A lot of risk. Friendships sometimes tear your heart to pieces, while at other times, build you up tremendously. While they come with their fair share of pain, friendships are so worth it. But...
“What is life going to be without them?” I was in tears as I talked to my mom. “They’re the best family ever. Why do they have to move?” I wasn’t ready for our dearest friends to move to California, a thousand miles away, with no hope they’d ever come back. We led a church together. All of us kids were close. I had the worst crush on their eldest son, and our parents had a deep friendship. I...
Vulnerability. If you’re like me, even the word scares you. Vulnerability involves risk. It involves opening up to someone and thus giving them ways to hurt you. It involves trusting someone. Trusting can be hard, especially if you’ve been hurt in the past. But without trust, life—particularly the Christian life—gets ten times harder. However, there are still several reasons to encourage our...
“Hey! How are you doing?” a friend asks as she swiftly walks by. “I’m fine. How are you?” is the inevitable response shot back with almost no second thought. “I’m good,” she replies with a smile that serves as a mask shrouding a wounded heart. Being real is unpopular. Many times we would rather keep our struggles and temptations to ourselves and...
“Be okay with missing out,” I told a living room full of middle school girls. “You don’t have to be a part of every single activity or conversation.” We were talking about friendship, but the concept is relevant to so many areas of our lives: be okay with missing out. Easier said than done, I know. We want to be a part of everything. We want to be a part of not only conversations and activities...
When I hear the word “friends,” I usually feel pangs of hurt inside of me. Many a day I have wept painful and sometimes bitter tears in response to these hurts. I have often felt excluded, rejected, and lonely. I have been excluded because some of my friends already had their own friends, and even when I tried so hard to be there for them, I was rejected. I just wanted to have friends...
Life is hard. I’m not talking about doing hard things, I’m talking about life that’s hard. Death in the family, sickness, despair, the sin in our world that we can’t stop, but we do look to God to help us with it. But sometimes even that can be really hard. The difficulties in life can make us ask, “Why God? Why would you let this happen?” And trust me, I’ve been living with that question for a...
Editor’s Note: Throughout the years, TheReb has published thousands of articles, each challenging and encouraging Rebelutionaries to do hard things and seek God. But among these posts, some have especially resonated with you, our readers. So over the next few weeks and months, we’re bringing back these classics, reposting our most popular and well-read articles every Thursday. May they encourage...
I turned 20 a few weeks ago, which means I’m officially no longer a teenager. In some ways, I’m glad to have those years over, but I also know that I grew a lot during that time. My teen years were a period of growth and change. It was when I realized what my shortcomings were, and how to work towards overcoming them. While I learned many valuable lessons as a teenager, three stand out: How to be...
“You don’t understand! Your life is perfect compared to mine! You wouldn’t understand.” “Ha! You think my life is perfect? Oh, no…” Comparison. That’s what it was. I was recently watching one of my favorite TV shows, and this scene eerily reminded me of a scene from my own life. I had believed someone else’s life was perfect. I complained that their life was perfect. I compared, allowing myself...
rebelling against low expectations
