A sweet older lady in our church family is well known for telling very involved stories about how her life used to be, is presently, and how she is worried it will one day be. She is also very well known for how she usually concludes those stories. After a short contemplative pause she looks you in the eye and reminds you that, “there’s a lot to livin’.”
Around here we sometimes joke about how she always says that phrase, usually more than once in any given conversation but, you know what, she’s right. There is a lot to living this thing we call life. And why not I say? We are a very intricate and complicated people and it makes sense that there would in turn be a lot to life. So why do we try to oversimplify our situations all the time? Why do we get stressed out when we are not able to crush our lives into nice tidy little boxes with nice organized labels all neatly in a row? Our lives are too big for that. We will never be able to control all aspects of our lives in such a way.
So is that it then? We just resign to having out of control, chaotic lives? No Way ! God doesn’t want us to crush our lives into controlling limitations. Instead He wants us to trust Him to take care of these huge, beautiful, spacious lives that He’s given us.
Check out what it says in the book of Matthew, chapter five:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air, they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
So the next time you get stressed out about how difficult and complicated your life is stop and take a breath and remember that God knows exactly how big and spacious He has created your life to be. Instead of being crushed by it all, use it to push you deeper into God. Use it as evidence for our great big God. I mean why would we be created bigger than we can manage if it were not so we would need to put our faith in the even bigger God who created us. If you are constantly trying to control and manage all the aspects of your life so you will appear more and more godly then I am not surprised that you are stressed. You’ve got it all backwards. What does Jesus say? “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Seek God, live passionately without fear, for Jesus Christ, and I have a hunch that the details of your life will work out just fine. Actually, you will probably find that the things you used to think were so important become less and less important as Jesus becomes the focus of your life.
Is it okay to admit that “there is a lot to livin’?“ Sure it is. Just make sure you say it with hope in your heart and not despair. The kind of hope that can only come from knowing that the God we “seek first” is more than able to handle all the details of our lives. Amen. Enough of my crazy talkin’ for now… bwa hahaha!