I recently spent some time in Florence, Italy, where classical statues are out in the open air for everyone to enjoy. They are all replicas of the originals but there is still that feeling of being near something that someone put their sweat and blood into just to make something beautiful. I'm no art guru but the detail was amazing! You had to appreciate it.

Florence is probably best known for the statue David made by Michelangelo. It's an enormous marble statue standing at over 17 feet tall (no joke!) which captures the moment in the biblical story when the young king-to-be David looks out across the battlefield at his nemesis Goliath and decides to fight. It's a statue of faith and potential. It's a statue showing the confidence one can have in himself when he has confidence in God and the greater plan.

Now, I would love to talk about the statue itself – why his hands are so big, what's the look in his eyes, why is he standing like that – but that is all so static. Analysis is good and important but stories tell so much more. So I want to talk about how the statue was made.

The story of Michelangelo's David begins as any other statue story begins, as a big rock. So big, in fact, that most artists wanted nothing to do with it. It was, as the Italians say, ginormous (only spent a month there so my Italian isn't that good). Plus, the cost and manpower it took to get this thing into Florence was not exactly funded by spare Euros. So, between the size of the rock and the size of the expectations placed on what should come of the rock most of the artists of the time found the most polite way to say, "No way," which I'm sure included a lot of hand gestures and yelling (Italians are a very passionate people). For awhile, it seemed that this rock was to defeat everyone, and no one had even taken it on yet. Just as things were looking dim for Florence, however, one man stepped out of the crowd and said that he would gladly take on the giant. His name was Michelangelo.

Now, as the story goes, Michelangelo didn't have any idea what he was doing, a position I'm sure that we can all relate to. But, in a sense, this is where his genius came from. You see, his philosophy when sculpting was very unique. He said that every rock had a hidden essence inside of it that was already decided on. It was his job as a sculptor to find this essence. In other words, he believed the rocks that he worked on already had a beautiful sculpture inside of them. It was just hidden. All he had to do was chip away everything that wasn't meant to be there, everything that wasn't the statue.

And this is what he did. For three years he slowly chipped away at everything that wasn't David and when he was done the masterpiece was revealed and history was made.

In the Bible, David took on Goliath while being not completely sure how he was going to beat him. In Florence, Michelangelo took on a gigantic piece of marble while being not completely sure what he was going to do with it. Both of these stories end with beauty being triumphant. It makes you wonder . . .

I have no idea what I am doing with my life right now. Why the heck did I go to Alaska? And why am I going back for another year? I feel like there is a direction here that I am heading in but don't ask me what it is.

Our lives are a mystery. They are revealed to us day by day, chip by chip. The beauty of each individual life, in my very humble opinion, is already there and we have several choices – We can try to force each moment, rush through things, and become something we are not. We can claim that it's just too big, wave our hands in the air and politely say, "No way." Or we can continue looking for the beauty that is already there, that which is meant to be, and let that triumph over us. This last one is where destiny and choice come into union, but choice is no longer a matter of deciding who you are. It becomes a matter of finding what is already there. YOU decide to hold back, let go, or hold on for the ride. Everything else is taken care of.

I feel like I have very little control over what my life is becoming right now, but I'm starting to think maybe it's right where I should be. I just got to keep chipping.