I love winter! I keep seeing Facebook posts about how people are tired of the gray days, and cold weather, and how they are wishing the fog and rain away. I get it, I mean, cold, dreary, damp…not necessarily weather that calls you outdoors. I love it though. I love the reprieve from the Sacramento heat. I love the snow. I love knowing that before I know it, I’ll turn around and there will be daffodils everywhere, and then in an instant it will be hot and we’ll be complaining about how we just wish it would rain again. My sister and I joke around all of the time about that always wishing we had what we don’t, then once we have it, wishing we had something else: “it’s the law of diminishing returns” my mom would tell us when we were kids (plain English translation: “you guys are never happy!”) I was thinking today about how I am often that way. I want to be less busy…so I try to clear my schedule, then I feel bored or lonely and disconnected. Then I schedule more hang-out time with friends, do that, and feel like I wish I just had some peace and quiet. I think it’s just the way we’re built…the grass is always greener…I think it really is the law of diminishing returns =)
As 2010 gets off and running, I hope that I can savor things a bit more. Be happy where I am, trusting that whatever the circumstances are, it’s just exactly where God knew I would be, and that He is ready to walk each day with me, one at a time. I am reminded of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 in which Solomon explains that there is a time or season for everything in life, even death. It is so good for me to intentionally take one day at a time. To be deliberate about asking God exactly what it is I’m supposed to do that day (Judy Carlson likes to ask God in the morning “what is my assignment today?”…I love that).
So today, instead of wishing for what isn’t, ask God to help you walk in what ‘is’. He is faithful to stay with us, stride-for-stride. In Ephesians 3, Paul prays for the church to be able to grasp how wide and long and high and deep Christ’s love for us is, explaining that it surpasses all knowledge. That is my prayer for us this year…to begin to catch a glimpse of that powerful love and that it will be impossible for us not to share that love with the people around us.
Much love,
Laurie
