Have you ever had one of those days where you just can't get any traction with your to-do list; where every time your phone vibrates with a new email or text, your list of things not getting done just gets longer and longer; then you think about your bank account and say a four letter word and begin thinking to spring break and how you don't have any plans nailed down; deep down you are scared that you are going to waste that precious week and there are only so many opportunities for freedom like this left? Of course you have. They happen and they are happening.
My scatter-brained-state peaked as I was on eighth street, headed for my weekly fraternity meeting. I knew I wouldn't be able to focus on anything if I went to meeting, so I hopped on I-35 and called my sister to see how life was treating her. After a 20 minute heart to heart, the dust in my mind began to settle and my heart rate slowed to a normal level where I was able to process life a little more clearly.
What I realized after talking to my sister is that nothing in life is certain and the joy that I find in my relationship with friends, the fun that I have with my girlfriend, the comfort that I find in being with my family and the satisfaction that I find in a job well done is totally robbed when I put my value and worth in people and accomplishments, not in the unconditional love of Christ. As I have been in the word daily for the past 2 months, I have realized that nothing in life is certain except for the truth that God has given us in his Word and the cross where Christ proclaimed his love for us. Friends let us down from time to time, relationships with significant others aren't always peachy, family members are sometimes in far away places and there is always someone else working to outshine our accomplishments. What lasts is our identity in Christ.
In John, 1:12-13, we are told "Yet to all who receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave them the right to become children of God-children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God."
Not only does God call us his very own children, but then, in Romans, Paul asks, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?...For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither present nor the future nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
That, my friends, is the Good News. The key to finding joy in your relationships and satisfaction in your work is first and foremost knowing that you are God's and that his love is a permanent fixture-it doesn't change like everything else in this world. The second key to claiming joy is taking the wisdom found in Matthew and realizing that "who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?"
I leave you with this, seek first His kingdom and everything you need will be given to you. Everything.
An evolving story of trying to follow Jesus in the midst of brokenness and an attempt to invite others on the pursuit of abundant life with mixed random bits of frat humor and brief moments of wit.
