Somedays I wake up and think...
A simplified lifestyle.
Uninterrupted time with my God and my girls.
I would escape this to do list, this work schedule, these bills I'm paying...
I would simply escape...
Anybody else reading ever have those days?
Yesterday was one of those days. Nothing major bad was going on...I was just tired of being in this world. I wanted to have a clear view of my God sitting on my back porch, but there were trees (literal and emotional) in the way. I wanted to be somewhere else, but I wasn't. Yes, I am thankful, very thankful for my back porch and the trees that surround it, but yesterday I just wanted to be somewhere else. Somewhere there were no trees (literal and emotional) obscuring my view. Where nothing was on my agenda other than sitting, gazing at a clear blue sky and chilling with my God.
As I sat there, I began to think of a mother in Honduras who lost her baby at 5 and 1/2 months. She had began to have complications and began to miscarry when she made it to the remote community clinic where we were. There was nothing we could do to stop the process and sending her to a hospital nearly two hours away by dirt road was our only option. We later learned the baby had not survived. Then there is another mother I worked with this week who recently went into labor at 6months, gave birth to a 1 and 1/2 pound baby boy who is at Duke and "doing well". Stuff like that messes with me. It does. I'm just being real. I began to cry and mourn for a mother I may never see again. I also began to thank God for the baby boy at Duke and the plans He has for his precious life. Different places, different lives, different worlds...
After a little while in His Word and trying to pray through some "thoughts/questions"
I had reminded myself I had a list of things to do, so I got busy doing them...
Straigten up the house-check
Surprise Abby at lunch with coke and donut holes-check
Get package in the mail-check
Get anniversary card-check
Get pliars for plumbing job-check
Go to Lake Benson(one of my favs) for some me and God time...check NOT!...uggh! There were people there, kids playing and splashing in the water, how dare they be at my spot! When I want to be there! alone with my God!
Frustrated I left, went through the car wash, headed to Lowe's to get a drainpipe for the downspout (which I destroyed, melted, burnt up...when I unknowingly built my firepit over it over a year ago)
Pick up the kids-check
Come home, do a little plumbing, get the downspout in place...-check
.....I think that's enough....the day was full to say the least....
Then this morning I get up and what words do I read? A devo that I read on most days, Jesus Calling...but I decided to read yesterday's since I had skipped it...
"I am calling you to a life of constant communion with me...learning to live above your circumstances...your cluttered plane of life...you yearn for a simplified lifestyle, uninterrupted...BUT...I challenge you to relenquish the fantasy of an uncluttered world. Accept each day just as it comes, and find Me in the midst of it all. Talk with me...your ultimate goal is not to fix everything around you, it is to keep communing with Me...."
Wow!!! I just have to say, WOW! I love my God, I love His Word. I love how He speaks directly to me, my feelings, my thoughts...my heart.
In the midst of it all...In the midst of it ALL...IN THE MIDST OF IT ALL...
He is good. He is here. He is with me.
I can have constant communion with my Constant Companion no matter what I'm doing. I can live above my circumstances. I can love those He sends my way in the midst of this cluttered world. That's the way He planned it. That's His ways, not my ways. He put us here in the midst of it all to shine His light. To show His grace. To love. No matter what.
Because of Christ. Because of what He has done for me. Because of the choices He made while He was in this cluttered world. Because He made a decision in the garden that day, "Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will, not mine." Because Jesus wanted His Father's ways more. Because He went through with the plan...
Because as Jesus talked to His disciples one final time before going to the cross, He spoke these words in Luke 16:33, "I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world."
There are some days (like yesterday for me) when we simply try to put things in order, in our head, in our mind, in our own ways... We try to make sense of it all, we try to fix all the clutter. We get overwhelmed and we want to escape to an island somewhere...underneath some palm trees somewhere. On most days that's not an option...Those are the days when we have a choice to make...I believe the only good choice is to trust His ways are not our ways; and His thoughts are way higher than our thoughts. We choose to believe He has a good plan. We may not understand it fully, but we choose His peace over our understanding. Days like those we have to keep our eyes open and ears in tune to His Holy Spirit to be ready for whatever He has planned IN THE MIDST OF IT ALL. We have to let go of our fantasy world and let God do what He wants, show up in whatever way He chooses. Easter is a celebration of that. Jesus has overcome the world. He has! Jesus has overcome the world, and if we are in Jesus then we can overcome the world. We can live above our circumstances. Even when we wake up and don't feel so much as even wanting be where we are or do what we gotta do that day, we can overcome and walk in His peace. We can show love IN THE MIDST OF IT ALL because we can know that there is more to this life that what we see or know. When we experience trials and sorrows we can take heart...because Jesus has overcome all of that. We can hold on. We can trust in Him. We can trust His peace that goes beyond our understanding IN THE MIDST OF IT ALL.
May you worship our Redeemer as you listen to one of my favorite songs:
Not just this Easter Sunday, but every day, may we celebrate the greatest event in all of history...
The resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Savior, our great Redeemer!
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