Day 25 - "If I sing at the top of my lungs it won't say a thing if I haven't love."

For those just joining us, read Day 1's caveat.

I knew coming into this project it would bring a new perspective on things I had never before imagined. I have been through times of solidarity, I have been times of speechlessness, and I'm still trying to find "my story" among a sea of what seems uncertain sometimes.

Today I realized two very big things:

1) I have something to say

2) I don't love people nearly enough.

There's got to be a reason why anything Seth Roberts (Watashi Wa, Lakes) does immediately hits home for me. I'm not sure what it is, but every word of this song relates to me in some way.

I find that there are times in my life where I have to go at it alone. May it be for a day or a year, aloneness has been very much a part of my life. Likewise, I have spent months going to bed thinking that there was no way I would make it through my life. But the best parts of my life are the moments where I know God has me so close there is nobody around but Him. He is close, I am so empty and I couldn't be happier.

Through all of this I have a story to tell. But without love, it means nothing. To do "nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit..." or to "value others above yourselves" is difficult. I said this morning to a room full of teenagers that this world makes it really easy to see others' selfishness and avoid our own. Philippians suggests that sharing in the Holy Spirit of God, bringing joy to other believers and sharing in one love entails holding others' needs over your own (Phil 2:4). Can we honestly say we do that?

Can we honestly say that in the story we have to share, that above everything else, we have love? Because otherwise, it doesn't matter. And you will know it when everything comes crumbling to the ground.

"The plans that I make... they fail miserably."