Originally published Wednesday, 16 July 2014.
We can wake up, these days, and believe, with all our hearts, that this is the most ordinary day. The alarm goes off and everything looks just the same as it did before. Same bed, same room, same situation as the previous day. There can be comfort in the sameness. There be comfort in knowing the routine. It offers some feeling of control, which can feel safe. And safe can feel good.
I wonder if I think I desire safety and routine, but in reality I desire something I will never receive because I have so little faith. Doing the same thing, day after day, hoping that there will be more time to accomplish a certain task, or that my relationship with my family and friends--and my God--will be closer and more meaningful and awesome.
Or maybe I struggle with the hard work change requires. While Justin and I write how new life comes only after resurrection from death--how Jesus modeled new life only after agreeing to die, and with Him, setting us free from sin--I am convinced, again, something in me may just need to die. For I want to abandon, once more, the feeling of being trapped.
Feeling trapped in the life God has given me--in the life Jesus died for, in the life of freedom He offers--doesn't make much sense. We're not meant to feel trapped. We're not meant to feel overwhelmed. But we can feel that way, nevertheless. So I stand, in my need, with the Corinthians, as Paul speaks God's words to my heart:
Just think—you don’t need a thing, you’ve got it all! All God’s gifts are right in front of you as you wait expectantly for our Master Jesus to arrive on the scene for the Finale. And not only that, but God himself is right alongside to keep you steady and on track until things are all wrapped up by Jesus. God, who got you started in this spiritual adventure, shares with us the life of his Son and our Master Jesus. He will never give up on you. Never forget that (1 Corinthians 1: 5-9, MSG).
I have not a thing to lose now. My Father has given me everything I need. Trapped? I imagine this is not a favorite word in His vocabulary. He came to save us as we were enslaved in sin, trapped in greed and pride and lack of faith. Trapped.
I used to feel trapped by the guilt I'd feel by not feeling one hundred percent fulfilled by being a mom who stayed home full time with her kids. I believed there was something wrong with me. There was.
I used to feel trapped in relationships when I've felt disconnected from someone I cared about, or misunderstood. I've felt trapped when my desires and passions were not claimed--when I ignored how God made me to love certain things, and I wasn't doing them, or I wasn't allowing myself time to believe they were real, or for me to do. Something was wrong in me then, too.
There is a life Jesus has fought for me to live, a new life that is more than circumstantial. It is a heart change, this reality of freedom. It is a life that requires faith to realize. It is a life that I want to choose.
So, do I just trust you more God? Do I call out to you, pleading "I believe! Help me with my unbelief!" ? Do I just refuse to believe in ordinary?
There's a pillow sitting on the little couch in the front room we had made from the crib our babies' slept in those first years. "Live the life you've imagined." I like it--all the possibility it reminds me is real and true, and, well, possible to experience. This ordinary day.
But I think it comes down to this for me: I need to believe the life I imagine is possible to live, with Christ, is for me--a life of freedom,where He is capable of taking from me every silly thought and every heavy burden. A new life bought by His ransomed life. I live to die and be resurrected and live, again, with Him.
So, again, I pray God helps me die.
Die to anger and to self-obsession. Die to my plans and to the minutes that don't go like I thought they should. Die to resentment and to my critical spirit. Die to selfishness and to greed. Die to believing the lie I'm not good enough to do the things He's made me to do, or that I shouldn't even begin to imagine freedom from worry or fear or pride.
And live to imagine He is here. Live to imagine I am made by a God who loves me. Live to imagine I can handle anything, with Him by my side. Live to imagine, no matter what I face, it's going to be okay.
{This post was originally published at youaremygirls.com.}
SHARE
