Seeing Green

Today will be short and sweet. A pint-sized pick me up.  

I recently watched this video from Hope Works called 'Seeing Green.' (Think Ted talks meet Mormons.) You'll have to watch it to fully understand I think, but here is my brief bit on why this is completely changing my life.

The premise of her talk is that we all live in a world of blue. We have always lived in a blue world and because of that we don't know anything different. We don't really understand color because nothing is color it is simply blue.

Then one day we get thrown into a world of yellow. When this happens there are usually 3 groups of people: 

1) There are the people who hate yellow. They would do anything to go back to blue. They fantasize blue and they think that blue was so much better than yellow. They think that everything will be good and they will be happy again if they can just get back to blue. 

2) There are the people who just love yellow, and in turn completely reject blue. They decide that obviously if they are now in yellow that must mean that blue was bad and they must get rid of any remnants of blue left in them. Yellow must be the only good thing. 

3) Then there are the people who think "I can't just reject blue. I lived blue. It was a part of me. But I also can't reject yellow. I am living yellow. It is a part of me. I was given blue. But I was also given yellow. Is there something I am missing? Is there something else?" And then that's when they see GREEN. 

You see, I served a mission for my church in France and I lived there for a year-and-a-half. It was amazing. I don't even have words to express to you how much it changed my life and how fulfilling and joyful it was. It was blue. Then I returned home a changed person and was thrown into a world of yellow. I tried really hard to keep on living and and keep up the things that helped me change so much when I lived in France. But there have been times when I felt like I just wasn't doing very well. Sometimes I wished I was back in France and convinced myself that if I was in blue everything would be ok. But there were also times when I tried to almost forget about my mission in an effort to live my new life and not fantasize the past. I tried to throw myself completely into yellow and reject the blue. 

I am here to tell you that both those options are impossible and deeply unfulfilling. I believe that God wants us to embrace them both. Embrace the green. You see, God gave me those blue experiences. He gave them to me, He wanted me there and he wanted me to experience everything I did. He wanted it to change me and become a part of me. But God also gave me yellow. He he gave it to me and he wants me to embrace it. He wants me to love it and for it to change me. He never intended for me to stay in blue forever, but he also never intended me to forget about blue when I came home. Today I am in yellow and that is good. Blue was also good. God wants me to take them both, embrace them both fully, and start seeing green. 

I hope this makes sense. It blows my mind again every time I think about it again. God is so wise. I love him for giving me blue and giving me yellow and for helping me see green. I truly believe that everything that happens to us is for a reason,the good and the bad. God can take all of those experiences, even the hard and sad ones, and turn our lives into something more glorious than we could ever do on our own. 

I love you. Keep on looking for God in everything and everyone.

xoxo Autumn

P.S. Voila the video.