ACCORDING TO ZAC

Lately I have been really worried about my life. Like, waaaaaay more than usual. And I've been having some really intense emotional whiplash getting really  caught up in these episodes in which I think about all the negative things that might happen and why does everyone else have something that I don't have but want and blah blah blah . And then God throws me a bone and says, "Hey. I love you. No, really, I do. And it's going to be just fine. Trust me." And then I cry. And then I start the process all over again. Well, in today's installment of "I love you and CALM THE HECK DOWN" from above, I was blessed with this little gem: "[God] made your spirit strong and capable of being resilient to the whirlwinds of life. The whirlwinds in your [life,] like the wind against a young tree, can increase your spiritual strength, preparing you for the years ahead." — Neil L. Andersen It made me think of all of the hardships in my...

The last month or two have been emotionally and spiritually turbulent, but for how challenging or upsetting a given situation might have been (mostly of my own doing, to be honest), in equal measure I have made great strides in faith, learning, and finding true joy. I can be sort of a doomsdayer, sometimes. I think, "Well I drove off the last woman I was interested in. I guess I'll just resign myself to being #foreveralone." Or, if after repeated goal setting and personal reflection I still don't feel like I'm making any progress on behaviors I'd like to change, I'll leap straight to "I'm not meant to shake these parts of who I am. I'll always be [enter personal deficiency or weakness here]." We all grow frustrated sometimes. It's the nature of most people, I think, that we get impatient when we aren't getting exactly what we want in the precise moment we've planned for it to arrive or occur. It can be the result of someon...

"I hate feeling broken," I said, as I sat in my car before work this morning. I had missed my normal morning prayer because I had slept in. I wanted to make sure to get a quick prayer in before I got started on the rest of my day. I didn't say much else, but I felt that God was near and that He gets why I feel this way. And I also felt that it would all be okay. I didn't even have to ask to feel better or anything, God just needed me to tell Him that I was hurting and He sent the good feelings and the calm and the love. This life can be so hard. We feel the need to live up to all these expectations that we set for ourselves, that society sets for us, and that God sets for us. The awesome thing is that He knows we can't do it all at once. We will stumble and fall and get so frustrated trying to be what we feel like we are supposed to be. I've learned that I just want to chase what God and I have worked out together to be my path. I get irritated that I can...