MARCH 25, 2019

“Be steady and well-ordered in your life so that you can be fierce and original in your work.” 

 ~ Gustave Flaubert

JOSHUA 14, 15

10“Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! 11I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. 12Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day.

LUKE 4:33-44

42At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. 43But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” 44And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

JOURNAL

This is such a beautiful picture into the life of Christ. He was the Son of God, the Messiah and yet he never rested in that title, he was disciplined and never content to sit and be worshiped. He had important work to do and he diligently saw to do it.

Work is one of the great blessings of life.  Yet there are so many things in culture that play up the allure of retirement. As if one day when you are no longer "working" life will then be full of joy.  The here and now is where God has me and it is where the opportunity for love, generosity, kindness and passion exist. The reality is that I am where I am. I can either consider it a blessing from God and look at every moment as an opportunity to learn, to serve, to give or to teach.  Or I can long for something I may never get all the while wasting the gift of today.

I believe the key is balance...there should be times of rest. There are also going to be moments of sadness, frustration and heartache. But that is just part of the beauty of life. We can't avoid it and if we extend extreme effort to do so...then we risk numbing our lives in ways that can harm us and those around us. I am where I am this moment today.

That goes back to the Turn it Loose principle, win the moment and be a great teammate. For when I go into wish mode, especially when I start replaying scenes from the past or possible scenes in the future, I am trying to control things that aren't controllable. I am trying to prepare and arrange for things that I don't have permission to change. That takes me away from this moment in time, I therefore get in my head and start missing the moment I'm in. When that happens I lose perspective and am not the best that I can be in this moment.

I love the quote by Flaubert...because it speaks to the discipline of doing the small things that we can control, which for me are a morning routine, devotion, meditation and planning the day. Because then I can have freedom to adjust, shift and use my talents in the moments for the rest of the day. But when I don't, I'm left scrambling, wishing, accommodating and trying to control things that I can't control or change. I can honestly say that what I'm usually wishing for is for things to be easier and not as hard. Those wishes take me away from the amazing opportunity to glorify God in being my best. Bottom line is that I am where I am this moment today. Embrace it and live it...in doing so I glorify the creator who gave it to me in the first place.

 23Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. 

COLOSSIANS 3:23-24