edamame.

Life is . . . difficult.

Wonderful, yes. But incredibly difficult.

It is so easy, commonplace even, to let ourselves get bogged down with all that the world throws our way. And it is much easier to try and take it on ourselves rather than giving it to God.

But, if we don't give it to God, we get too busy to hang out with friends. Too busy to call mama and daddy. Too busy to read that Jane Austen novel we've been working on for months and have only gotten to Chapter 2. Too busy . . . to blog.

It takes a conscious effort to choose celebration over tasks. But, hey, I believe it's possible.

People say that God never gives us anything we can't handle.

They're full of it.

God gives me stuff that I can't handle all the time. The real truth is this: God never gives us anything he can't handle. And that's the beauty of it. That all the day-to-day, the monotonous, the strenuous, the things that make you want to pull out your hair (not to mention the hair of the person stressing you out) . . . we simply can't handle it. But God can.

Now, the trick is to celebrate the little things. Like best friends. And love letters from a Savior. And the brief moments that we do get to read that Austen novel. And edamame. Oh my word, edamame.

In her book "Cold Tangerines," (quite possibly my favorite book of all time and one that I will probably quote often) Shauna Niequist, a beautiful, wonderful, exuberant guru of all things celebratory and joyful, sums it up pretty well:

"I believe in a life of celebration. I believe that the world we wake up to every day is filled to the brim with deep, aching love, and also with hatred and sadness. And I know which one of those I want to win in the end. I want to celebrate in the face of despair, dance when all we see on the horizon is doom. I know that Death knocks at our doors and comes far too early for far too many of us, but when he comes for me, I want to be full-tilt, wide-open, caught in the very act of life."

So, the challenge I issue to the millions of people I like to imagine read my blog when in reality I only have four followers who don't read it is this: Celebrate.

Something.

Everything.

Learn to throw every bit of darkness back where it came from.

And celebrate.

Even if it's just edamame.