Breathing out the Gusto

Today,

We go head to head with LIFE,
~

        So as usual I was watching a movie, this time it was Larry Crowne, which isn't the most 'specta-culer' movie of all time, but it was good. Anyways, I was watching this movie and suddenly it occurred to me; I have to start moving and breathing and walking and talking and...I don't know, preparing, so then I can live. Basically, this thought popped into my mind; "I need to prepare to live!" I will not be living at my parents my whole life, I know I won't. So, I need to start getting ready now. I can't just laze around and sluff off my homework, and be mean to people and hurt the people I love.  Then it occurred to me...if I'm preparing to live....then what am I doing now? Am I in limbo...waiting for the first independent step into an apartment I call my own or to another city where I'm living and breathing and moving and talking and walking?
        No.
        Right now. Right here. I am living and breathing and moving and talking and walking and hurting and wanting and lazing and leaving and heaving and a lot of other 'ings' that would take too long to write. It's a baffling concept...that I've always struggled with...the concept of being alive...of being a character in a story. One time when I was in elementary school I was walking down the hall (it was the ramped hallway, I remember) and suddenly it hit me like a like a little double-digit old epiphany: I could have been a fox.
         Okay, so that sounds weird, but it is valid. Have you not ever slumped on your bed, or fell down the stairs or gazed up at the stars and thought, "what if I had been born a fox...a bee...a bear...a shark?" It is so amazing that we get to be human. We have brain power and we all have the ability to use it. Sometimes some of us don't. That's just a fact. I sometimes don't, because, supposedly, 'it's easier'!!
         So I say live life with GUSTO.  If you don't know what that word mean, GUSTO means to do things with hearty or keen enjoyment. So to do things with zeal...zest...brio...verve...with passion. Live a life full of passion. We've all met those types of people who seem to literally bubble over with vivacity and excitement. They genuinely delight in life. They love recklessly, and exude real kindness, and give unbelievable grace. I know one of those people...her name is Tessa. I smile every time I see her. Not only is she beautiful and musical, she is kind, caring, funny, encouraging, and understanding.
         I know that sometimes it's a little hard to bring up the gusto...to muster up the energy to greet life with a good slap and a cheeky grin. But we've got to do it, or how else will we succeed in this world of slap downs and frowns and sad faces. Yet, mustering isn't something you do on your own...you need the grace-filled King of GUSTO himself to prop you up and say "take up your mat and walk". I...don't always think He's there with me...and to be honest I've got some pretty big doubts...but I KNOW that God has never left me...when I say, 'where are you God?' He answers 'I'm right here, where are you?'
         I will run, run with GUSTO, run with JOY, run because I'm running to God. I've still got a long stretch ahead but I hold onto the one Jesus-spoken-whisper, "Come to me."
         Grab a hold of God, of Jesus, of gusto.