The Crave Movement: We Can't Settle

It starts in middle school. The feelings of loneliness and vulnerability. It carries over into high school. You get your first everything; heartbreak, friends leaving, loss. I guess you could say that it sucks. Big time.

There's something that you might not know, though: It happens to everyone. Everyone feels broken, lonely, hurt, and frustrated. Our hormones are running ramped and the stress feels unbearable. We get pressured to be like everyone else and we often give in. We want to fit in, because we are afraid to stand out.

I have felt this too. We all have. Because the worst feeling in the world is sitting in a cafeteria full of people, and eating alone. Silent. Alone. Scared. The thing is, though--and this took me a long time to learn--is that we can't settle. We can't settle into the standards that this world has laid out for us to settle into. We can't go with the crowd because we aren't called to be apart of the crowd. The truth is that if this world hates you, you're doing something right. John 15:19 says "if you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you."

The best part about this is that we get to spend an eternity with someone who loves us enough to die for us. We aren't of this world, we are of the body of Christ. We get to have a best friend at all times. Jesus. When you're feeling lonely, or broken, or scared, or whatever it is is, he is there for you.

He died for us; for our sins and our insecurities and our doubts. He died for all of that simply because he loves us. He loves who we are because he made us that way. He made us and all of our quirks that the world loves to hate.

I want you to know that you're never alone. There are so many people who are going through the same things that you are. I want you to know that on the loneliest, most frustrating days, you can talk to someone--Jesus. He will always be there to be your friend. And that is why we can't settle. We can't settle for something that isn't the best, and you'll never find a truer love, or a truer friend, than in Jesus.