I am sitting on my balcony, having a staring contest with the moon. I am sure he is winning. I am wearing shorts and a tank-top and I am not the slightest bit cold.

I am here in Hurst, TX. I am living my life. I am living in the future, at times. Imagining days that feel more bright or free or romantic. Yet they will have their pain and boredom too, I know.

I didn’t write on Thanksgiving, it felt too cliché. Write what I am thankful for… A list felt incomplete. How do you express thankfulness when it is a state of being? It happens naturally, without pressure when I am at peace.

And peace comes when believe everything is all right, that I have all I need, that people are lovely,

That my life is beautiful.

My dog is staring at me along with the moon now, and it’s fairly quiet around my apartment complex for a Saturday night. I smell that warm and spicy baking smell drifting in from my kitchen.

And it’s hard to believe on nights like tonight that there is so much conflict and hate and anger and suffering.

It’s not that I am not aware of it, it’s not that I don’t care. Sometimes I care so much it physically hurts.

It’s just that I need to be reminded that peace is a stronger reality, that love already reigns.

I am working at my local mall for World Vision, trying to get kids sponsored and people to buy gifts for families living in extreme poverty; gifts like medicine, clean water, or a goat.

Click Here to Give a Gift

It’s funny, how my life goes, standing in a mall watching dozens of people pass by, trying to get them to care.

I am not angry or surprised when they don’t care. What is tangibly right in front of them is those shoes they’ve been wanting to get for their child. But when people do care, it always surprises me, in a good way.

What also surprises me is when I continue to stereotype people and they continue to prove me wrong. When a tough hispanic gangster-looking dude with a teardrop tattoo stops and listens, really hears me, and ends up buying a cow to help provide milk for a hungry family.

I love getting to help people make selfless decisions. It makes me want to make more selfless decisions.

I know that we may have bad days where we watch too much news and think that everything is building up, that the whole world is about to break, and people in Christian circles may throw out phrases like,”End Times.”

I can just smile and be thankful. Because when you live inside of peace and Peace lives inside of you, it’s hard to see the bad even if you are looking for it.

The world is full of awful people, but it is also full of so much beauty and kindness.  Your reality really is what you are looking for and what you believe.

So despite the naysayers and constant bad-dayers, I can know in my heart every new day is new and full of people who want to care about another human being, maybe they just need to be pointed in the right direction.

Maybe these are the “End Times,” but so what?  They are also the Beginning Times.

Tags: End Times, new day, Thankful, Thanksgiving, world vision