May 2014 - Journeying Outside My Box

I Believe In You

May 29, 2024 By Rebekah 0

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about believing in people - considering it from every possible angle that I can. Why? Well, because I’ve been in spots when I needed someone to believe in me, and I’ve watched others who have needed someone to believe in them. I’ve seen people flourish from a simple, “I believe in you,” and I’ve seen people wither as the world seems to turn away. I’ve known life stories that your heart doesn’t soon forget, and I’ve had my own experiences which leave me grasping for those who will believe in me or someone in my family.

I wanted to share some of my thoughts with you, in no particular order.

At one point or another, we’ve all been in need of someone to believe in us. Maybe it was a job interview, maybe it was just a time when we were feeling down and needed encouragement, maybe it was a major mistake we made and had to “pay our dues” to fix. But we have all been there - whatever that has meant to us as individuals.

We’ve probably all heard, “I believe in you,” at some point in our lives.

We’ve all wanted to believe the person telling us they believe in us, but when push comes to shove, we often find that we feel completely alone.

(But we can’t trust our feelings.)

From a different perspective, we have all known people who have benefited from someone believing in them. Maybe it was a child trying to make it across the monkey bars for the first time, maybe it was a new coworker on the first day at the job, maybe it was someone who has made choices vastly different from the ones we would have made - and lived to tell the story.

They all have someone they can point to and say, “They believed in me!”

Their life has been enriched, made better, because someone invested some time and energy into helping them succeed.

Just like Jesus.

He knew His role in coming to this earth. He believed in us long before we even knew Him. He invested time, effort, tears, and His whole life because He wanted us to have the opportunity to be with Him forever.

It cost Jesus His whole life to believe in us.

What does it cost us to believe in someone else?

Time? Definitely.
Energy? Without a doubt.
Effort? Sure.
Money? Possibly.
Love? Hopefully.

That’s a lot to consider, certainly. We all value our time - it’s extremely precious. Energy and effort - we don’t want to waste those. Money - we’re all trying to be careful there. Love - we don’t really want to risk getting hurt.

Consider, though…

That time? The energy and effort we’re trying to not waste? The money we’re all trying to save? The LOVE…?

We can spend those anywhere, on anyone, and the other person will definitely benefit.

But what if we spent them on a person who needed someone to believe in them? What if we invested in “the least of these” (Matthew 25)?

Yes, they could certainly take advantage, they might not live up to our expectations, they might leave us feeling frustrated or sad, maybe even broken-hearted.

Or maybe, just maybe…

We might be the world-changer in their life.

Because believing in someone might cost us. It might hurt. It might leave us frustrated and exhausted.

But maybe we need to consider the other person, and the difference it just might make in their life.

Is it more important to be “safe” or to dare to try to be a world-changer where we can?

Because that person who needs us to believe in them? We have the opportunity to change their world - just by believing in them. By simply NOT giving up on them.

It’s easy to judge (eh-hem…spoken as one who has done this too many times).

But an opportunity to be a world-changer for someone, to remind them of how amazing they can be, no matter what?

I’ll take it.

I believe in you.

I
Believe
In
You!

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The Help We Need

May 23, 2024 By Rebekah 1

I’ve had a number of conversations recently, all centered around getting the help we need. That has meant something different in every conversation - from needing a baby-sitter, to needing help making some major changes in life. We all need help at some point, don’t we? And, I would venture to say that we all have an idea of what that help should look like.

That’s what caught me off guard today - talking to someone about the fact that even though we think we know what we need, the help we ultimately receive, doesn’t always look like we think it should.

Think back to childhood for a minute, and about learning to ride a bike. Remember when your training wheels first came off? (There went your help!) But then someone ran along beside you, holding onto the bike while you figured out the whole balancing and keeping yourself upright. That was helpful, wasn’t it?

But what if they had never let go?

You wouldn’t want to be an adult riding a bike, still needing someone to run alongside and hold the bike, would you? Of course not. But when you think about a parent letting go of that bike, knowing that it’s likely the child will fall and get hurt, that doesn’t actually seem like help does it?

And yet, as a parent, we let go of that bike.
We are the help, and we let go of the child on the bike.
And we hope that they don’t hate us when they fall and get hurt.
We hope that they’ll accept our encouragement to keep on trying because they’ve almost got it figured out!

And then, in one glorious moment, there they go - down the street, completely on their own. They did it - because the actual help was in the letting go once we knew they could do it!

I’m pretty sure they weren’t thankful for a “help” that only held on for so long, and then let go. No doubt they weren’t thankful for a help that let go and let them scrape their knees and elbows.

But in the end, they seem thankful for the help that got them off their training wheels, and riding with the big kids.

Sometimes help doesn’t look like we think it should. We would all love the assurance of someone holding onto us as we learn and grow through different stages of life - even into adulthood.

As adults, we maneuver through schedules, jobs, children, co-workers, bills, unexpected blessings, tragic loss, major purchases, big life decisions. Sometimes those are very easy to navigate, but other times situations in our lives can be messy, and we’re just like a child learning to ride the bike, knowing that this is an uncertain time, but that going through it will make us stronger.

We look around for the hand that is supposed to be holding on - maybe it’s a parent, a spouse, a friend. All of a sudden, we realize that while we aren’t truly alone, we’re alone in that moment.

Feeling alone, we might wobble, take our eyes off the goal and fall and get some bumps and bruises.

But we can get back up. We can pray and keep going - “pedal” with all our might - knowing that God wouldn’t bring us to this if He wasn’t preparing a way through all of it for us.

We need to realize that just because we don’t see the help we’re looking for, it doesn’t mean that no help is available to us.

Help won’t always look like what we think it should. Let’s face it - an infinite God created us, and the world around us, and we’re going to try to limit His help to what our minds can understand? No way!

I have found myself frustrated with God at times, demanding what I thought I should have, in terms of help. How foolish. We approach the world with earthly eyes and an earthly understanding.

He’s not limited by our finite minds.

When we’re in need of help, when our help doesn’t look like we think it should, let’s remember that just because we can’t understand the help, does not mean that no help is there. We need to trust that God is always looking out for us.

Lean into your circumstance. Trust that God is right there with you. Keep going through - “pedal” like your life depends on it! Don’t waver and look around and topple over. Fix your eyes on Jesus and realize that He’s making a way through for you.

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Inspiration

May 22, 2024 By Rebekah 0

We have 3 young piano players in our home, and we are gearing up for the end-of-year recital. We’ve hit a little bit of a wall and needed some inspiration, so today we cleared off the piano, decided specifically what our focus would be, and set to work.

The picture on the wall behind our piano has been covered in quotes meant to inspire and motivate, many by famous composers and pianists. I thought I would share the quotes here with you, in case you’re needing a little inspiration - not just for piano, but for life. So here they are, in no particular order.

quotes to inspire & motivate || rebekahmhallberg.com

“The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is practice.”

“Nothing worth doing is ever easy.”

“Talent is good. Practice is better. Passion is best.”

“Hard work beats talent if talent doesn’t work hard.”

“The piano is the easiest instrument to play in the beginning and the hardest to master in the end.” -Horowitz

“I worked hard. Anyone who works as hard as I did can achieve the same results.” -Bach

“To play without passion is inexcusable.” -Beethoven

“Music can change the world.” -Beethoven

“Don’t practice until you get it right. Practice until you can’t get it wrong.”

“It is a mistake to think that practice of my art has become easy to me.” -Mozart

“There are and there will be thousands of princes. There is only one Beethoven.”

“Every difficulty slurred over will be a ghost to disturb your repose later on.” -Chopin

“A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence.” -Stokowski

“Your talent is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God.”

“To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time.” -Bernstein

“It’s a beautiful thing when a career and a passion come together.”

“Inspiration is a guest that does not willingly visit the lazy.” -Tchaikovsky

“Put all your soul into it, play the way you feel.” -Chopin

“I should be sorry if I only entertained them. I wish to make them better.” -Handel

For the next few days, we’ll be adding to the quotes as we work to solidify and prepare the music for the recital. I’m excited to see how this final push, done differently than ever before, will work out.

I hope you’ve been able to find a little motivation as you read through the quotes!

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