I'm moving!

Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content. Phil 4:11

If you’ve read my story (www.morethanchocolate.org ) you know my life has been anything but predictable or stable. Yet, way down deep I have still clung to a secret hope that somehow I could make it be. I like order. I like predictability. I like to feel like I am in control of what the day will hold. Yet life for me and many of us lately has been anything but predictable. At this moment, I am packing up boxes at what I thought would be my last home – a beautiful farm house on ten acres. However, the economy hasn’t been friendly to builders, so we sold our home and in three weeks will move to a place yet to be determined! Yet through the craziness, God has helped me see that my seemingly innocent desire to have things in life (like my home) be predictable, stable, and comfortable is just another idol God is asking me to lay down.

I heard a preacher once ask the question, “Are you a pilgrim or a settler?” Do you live your life as a traveler on your way to an eternal home, or are you desperately trying to set up camp in this life? Do you fall apart when God tells you to move (literally or figuratively); or do you deny yourself, take up your cross, follow Him and find true life (Matt 16:24-25)? Are you constantly trying to arrange your life so it is comfortable and stable, or are you giving God your life to use as He sees fit? Can you experience peace despite your circumstances (Phil 4:7), or do you find peace only when things go as you would hope or plan? Oswald Chambers said, “there is only one thing you can consecrate to God and that is the right to yourself (Rom12:1)”. He goes on to say, “the saint realizes that it is God Who engineers circumstances, consequently there is no whine, but a reckless abandon to Jesus.” The really cool thing is… there is peace in reckless abandon, in the laying down of our desire for stability and predictability, in forsaking our need to control our lives and the lives of others, and allowing Jesus to be our guide one day at a time (Matt 6:32-34). Our Father is so good. His burden is easy and His guiding yoke is light. It is in reckless abandon to Him (not predictability or stability in this life) that He tells us we will find rest for our souls (Matt 11:29-30). And that is no small thing.

Prayer: Oh Lord, help me to lay down those things which keep me from experiencing your peace. Take my right to myself, my day, my calendar, my expectations, my need to control, my desire for stability and predictability, and help me to live in reckless abandon to You. May I give glory to You no matter what this day brings. May I only desire to stay under the shelter of Your wings, for you are my rock, my protector and my comforter (Ps 61:3-4). Amen..