circumstances are not prison walls

​I had a conversation with a friend the other day. They said, "sometimes I wish circumstances were different."

Those words stifled me for a moment. They reminded me of all the times in my life I've said those exact words. All the time I've spent waiting for circumstances to get good so my life could get good. They reminded me of some of the things 'wishing circumstances were different' stole from me in life.

I have seen circumstances as prison walls in stead of circumstances.

Prison walls are made to be insurmountable. They are lined with guards and designed to keep you in.

But circumstances - they are just circumstances. Some of them are hard. Some not so much. But none of them are designed to hold you back.

I believe all circumstances are inviting us forward. We are the ones who too often and too hastily decline the invitation.

I told my friend that there are some things in my life that may never happen. But never again will it be because I start with the belief that circumstances are guarding me against them.

I may walk to the edge of the circumstances and discover that wall is just too tall to navigate, but when you walk away from a wall and know you were brave enough to challenge it, and wise enough to know it was indeed too tall, you don't walk away a prisoner.

You walk away knowing you are living.

My circumstances are drastically different today than they were a year ago. Some days that feels good. Some days that feels sad. But every single day I know my circumstances are mostly circumstances I've created, not circumstances I watched happen to me.

There's something powerful that happens when you're living a life you are creating and not one that is falling on you. It doesn't guarantee a good life, or a happy life, but it does guarantee that it is YOUR life.

There is comfort in living your life.

I've written often this year about the song Say I Won't by Mercy Me - and specifically the line "while I've been waiting to live, my life's been waiting on me." Well I think waiting to live happens a lot when we see circumstances as prison walls. It makes waiting the more comfortable thing to do.

But living, living the life that has been waiting on you, that takes recognizing that circumstances aren't prison walls.

They are simply circumstances.