One day, 24 hours, 1440 minutes...

I'm on a Matthew kick these days... reading the passages in The Message version of the Bible and gaining a whole new perspective on the scripture I've known for so long, yet never really grasped until now. Matthew 6 states:

"If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.


If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met."

My favorite portion of this passage in found in the last verse... "Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.". Oh my dear lanta... I'm SO that person. I get wrapped up in the "what if's" or the "someday's" of life, that I literally waste my life worrying about the hopes and dreams that may never come, instead of living today for the gift that it is.

I've learned much about myself over the last month - and one of the greatest things is that I've been way too uptight for way too long. Taking on too much stuff to prove myself, while watching my life literally waste away before my eyes And yet I still push to the next goal, the next milestone - an exhausting, never ending process of frustration and inevitable disappointment.

The amazing part is that God does care, He does love, and He does know all the ins and the outs of our lives. He knows the worries I have about my calling for my life on earth. He knows the burden of my heart for certain people in my life. He knows the joy and the frustation of my work. And He knows the deep desires of my heart to have a home to invite others into, to love on anyone He puts in my path, and to leave a legacy with my husband that will carry on generation after generation. And the best part... he's working ALL of these situations out, right now, for my good. Even if it means I have to wait and be patient. Even if it means it doesn't quite work out the way I've imagined it to. He's in the driver's seat of my life and He knows better than I do what I need and when I need it.

So I'm learning to become more "chill". I'm realizing that each moment of each day is a gift, and within each of those gifts lies an opportunity to be thankful or bitter. It's time I started choosing thankfulness over bitterness, forgiveness over resentment, peace and quiet over busyness, and time well invested in the lives of others over time wasted doddling on what may never come.

And I've learned that the less expectation we place on each other, the less pressure we put on ourselves to measure up to the Jones' down the street - the more joy and peace we have in our lives. When we become satisfied and grateful for what we do have (a home, a bed, a job, friends, family, etc) we begin to see God's presence in a brand new light. We begin to see His handiwork in every facet of our lives - in the good, in the bad, and in the mediocre. And we begin to live a life expectantly desiring what God's will is and going after it one day, one hour, one minute at a time.