Living vs. Existing

As we get ready to begin our Uprising...A Revolution of the Soul study I wanted to provide for you something to think about from the book Uprising by Erwin McManus. On page 5 it says, "This is how life is supposed to work. It's an adventure, a journey, a trek filled with uncertainty, excitement, and risk. One bad or painful experience can cause you to remain on the banks. But when you do, you neither move forward nor backwards; there you sit, just watching life go by. Yet I am convinced in all of us there is a voice crying out, a confession waiting to be declared without shame, "I want to live!" This journey requires many confessions and declarations, but this is a good place to begin. Sometimes this yearning has been neglected or even rejected. The longing to be alive is drowned by lesser ambitions. We just want to make it through the day, survive, make ends meet, go through the routine, and then exist rather than live. If you have conceded to this lesser form of humanity, let me invite you to hear the roar inside your own soul. You may be apprehensive at first but let the trembling turn into rumbling. If you would dare risk it, stop right now, stand up wherever you are, and declare without shame, "I want to live!"
What thoughts arose in you as you read that? What feelings arose in your heart or in your mind? Have you thought of life as being an adventure or a journey and what does that mean to you? Maybe you tried to stick your neck out a couple of times and you got hurt so you are tentative to do it again. Maybe you were always told to play it safe...to take the easy road...to not ruffle any feathers. Are you watching life go by? I am convinced there is so much more to life than graduating high school, going to college, getting a degree, getting a job to pay the bills, and having a family. Now those are all great things but is that living? Is that all God wants to see happen in our lives is getting a degree...or going into the work force after high school so we can get a job to pay bills or is there more? Is there a deeper yearning he calls us to? There is a quote from the movie Braveheart that says, "All men die few men ever really live." Do you want more than just to have a life but do you want to live? Do you want your life to be about more than just surviving the day? It is so easy to get caught up in the same routines day after day and not really live. Do you feel anything deep down in your soul that knows there is more to life than this? So are you willing to step out past the mundane, the easy, the comfortable and say with passion "I want to live!"