Day 25 Saturday March 14 – [Journey]
RO: Snow covers everything. // The earth is going to warm up and this snow will not just stay on the top it will melt and become water and it will get into the earth. That’s when it changes the earth. // Will you let your hard heart soften? Will you let your cold heart melt? And will you let the word of God, that descends from the heavens, accomplish the purpose for which He descended? To make you not just look nice but to make you new.
Hosea 6: 1-6
For it is love that I desire, not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings
Luke 18: 9-14
But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’ I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
I realized as I lay in bed last night that I felt content. I think it is the contentment that I have been searching for. To not want things. To be happy with what I have. This feeling felt so freeing and peaceful. I wanted that feeling to last, and if it couldn’t last I at least wanted it to be repeated. That feeling lasted about one minute, but it was a very blissful minute. Then in the morning it’s not that I forgot the feeling — rather, I was motivated by it — but it’s that the day came and life came and I went out into the day to do what needed to be done.
This Lent and taking a step back in life though has been the key I have been searching for. I feel like I have unlocked a way to not perhaps be content but to find contentment. To pause. Slow down. Purposely remove myself from the “daily grind”. Get in touch with my spiritual self more fully. Live with God ever present in my heart and mind.
While is ideal to always enter every day with God on your heart and mind and then proceed to keep Him there in everything you do — that can get to be quite challenging! Depending on the day you might have to really work on it. And I think I am someone who thinks she generally does a decent job at keeping God closeby and living the way He would want me to live, and yet it is still hard. And this Lent has shown me that no matter how “on the path” we may think we are there is always room for improvement.
Our journey in life should be to become like God. And the fact that we fail often and always have room for improvement is not something that should make us give up. Rather: What an opportunity! We are here, struggling day to day to be more Christ-like. And who do we have to look to for an example of how to live? Jesus! Jesus was the most impressive role model. And it’s not that His holiness should intimidate us but rather it should give us comfort that He lived as man, struggled just like you and I, and still chose God. And by choosing God, by sacrificing His own life for us, we can come to know just how great God is. This earth is temporary so on our journeys we need to work hard to not succumb to the day-to-day, because in striving to become like God we will achieve eternal life with God.
Update: On Sunday I popped into a store to just buy socks for Nora. Of course they put the baby stuff in the way back so you have to walk thru everything. I was not tempted to look around the store at all. I didn’t want things. On the way out though I could already feel that contentment starting to slip. I saw one shirt and was like “ooo that’s nice” — and in that moment I got to see how easy it is to forget how great following God so fully makes me feel.
Is it easy to get distracted by the meaningless things in this world and lose perspective? All too easily so! Being close to God is something that I need to work on every day. He is always there with me, I need to make sure I stay with Him. Being conscious of how I live each day is half the battle. Because God makes me aware of my weakness He has given me a better opportunity to choose Him. I can pause, realize where I might be going off the path He prefer I was on, and then work to choose Him in all things.
Continue to Day 26
Give God Your Yes 