Ignite your soul

One of my very best friends just got offered a spot in the Peace Corps, an offer to be placed in Botswana.  She applied to the Peace Corps just over a year ago, and for the past 13 months she been anxiously awaiting first acceptance into the Corps, then once that happened placement. After busting her ass for years my best friend finally got what she wanted, and the moment she got what she had been working so hard for other things fell apart in her life, for she realized that if she goes away that puts her personal relationships here, on hold.   

My best friend realized that getting what you want often comes with a cost, and if she wanted to accept something new in her life, that would require that she eliminate, or at the very least put on hold parts of the life she had been building while waiting for her ultimate goal.  The night after she got the offer to be placed in Botswana we had a two hour conversation. For hours we talked as she attempted to decide exactly what life she wanted: the one she had been working so hard at building in Tucson, or the one she has dreamed of in Africa. 

I haven’t talked to my friend since.  She has a week to make one of the biggest life decisions she’ll ever have to make, she’ll call me when she needs to talk, but the final thought I left her with last week was this: “I'm going to miss you so much, but I know that this experience will ignite your soul and life is about working towards the moments that do that.”

 “This experience will ignite your soul and life is about working towards the moments that do that”, what an amazing thought, I don’t know where that wisdom came from, God probably.

I’m not sure about you but most of my days are mediocre at best.  I wake up, I go to work. I do some homework, hit the gym, watch Netflix, text my friends, jump on and off of Facebook, a few times a week I call up friends or family members to have one- on- one time we can’t have in person.  I might go to Starbucks or on a mini adventure, but really for the most part my days are just your average everyday days. 

However, while I’m working to make it through the day to day I am also working for a much bigger picture. I decided a long time ago that while many of my days may be mediocre the idea that my overall life story will end up being run-of-the-mill is unacceptable.  So, I have invested my time in energy into things like relationships and education.  I pour all the energy I can into these two things because I know that if I stock pile these things moments, opportunities and experiences will arise when a spark will come, when my soul will be ignited in ways more than I can even imagine, and when those moments happen I want the flame to burn bright, fueled by the surplus of knowledge and love I have stored up. 

After talking to my friend last week though, I now realize that wanting the sparks to come isn’t enough, because they will inevitably come.  Through the years I will be offered things, I’ve worked towards. I will find love I’ve been searching for. I will be given opportunities I’ve dreamed of.  After talking to my friend I now realized that wanting the spark can’t be where I stop, being willing to accept the sparks that will ignite my soul will be the real challenge, finding the strength and courage to jump when it’s time.

So this is what I leave you with today. First I ask, what are you stockpiling in your soul?  What is waiting to be ignited inside of you? Secondly I ask, when the time comes, which it will, when your soul is ignited will you hesitate? Will you stop and question your hopes and dreams? Will you consider giving them up to settle for what you’ve created while waiting for them, or will you embrace the gift of an ignited soul; embrace the fire that wants to spread?