Frustrations Designed to Provoke Thought

Several frustrations have been on my mind lately, and I need to cleanse my mind and get them out there. Hopefully you can either relate and see hope that you are not alone, OR you can help me get out of this rut I am in.

First...

Does anyone else find it hard to get over the past? We go through these sucky events in our lives, and the consequences of them creep into our present, and suddenly we realize that we are moderately messed up in our view of the world or ourselves or whatever.

So how do we get over it? How do we get past our irrational fears?

Second...

For years and years and years, I dreamed of the day I would graduate from university and get a real job. But now that I'm there, even though I do love my job, it doesn't give the type of satisfaction that I was expecting. And my frustration is not with the lack of satisfaction I have from becoming an official "career girl," it is more with the fact that I thought that contentment resided in something outside of God.

You know, there are SO many things that we think will complete our lives and give us that ever elusive "happiness." But true contentment only comes from a relationship with God. And it frustrates me that I continually think I am going to find it elsewhere! Because now that I am working, there are so many other FUTURE events that I have my sights set on (getting a car, moving out, getting my MBA - yeah, more school, crazy me) that I still see contentment and happiness as something in the future.

But, as I know in my head, I have everything I need to be content right now. And I've always had it.

The frustration comes from the fact that my heart doesn't always listen to my head on such matters. And as long as I think that happiness and contentment reside somewhere other than now, that is exactly where they will be. Not here, not now. Always tomorrow...