I can’t believe I’m alone in this so I have to write about it. I would be okay with being alone is this, but life has taught me that speaking out in your struggle gives others the freedom to be honest about theirs. We were liberated through the Cross to walk in freedom, and sometimes I’m really bad at it because I don’t look there in chaos.
When things get too busy. When life becomes overwhelming. When the list of extras is just as long as the every day have-tos, all I see is the chaos. That’s when it pummels me, and as of this morning, I know why.
I fixed my eyes there. I get caught up in it and it topples over and I get pinned down. It’s all I can see. In the fight for peace to stand in and rest in and be still in, I struggle out from under the pile of “everything,” and that doesn’t bring my soul rest. If anything it makes me more worn than doing the lists would. Do you see it?
I fix my eyes on the doing. This isn’t to say life isn’t full of stuff that needs to and has to be done, but that’s not where I need to look.
If my eyes are ever-fixed on Jesus, I see He is my rest. I see He, through the in dwelling of His very spirit, has given me what I need to abide and rest in Him- no matter how chaotic life is. It doesn’t even have to be “bad stuff” for the chaos to become a distraction from this bigger truth.
In all seasons, at all times I can step into this if I choose to not get so drawn into everything else and let those things become what my life is about. Seasons roll on and on, and there will always be somewhere to go, something to clean, laundry to wash, and on and on. The difference is knowing that those things being knocked out of the park or left unfinished for another day don’t define who I am. Who I am is not changed by the chaos.
That’s the real sting in it. We see ourselves and measure our success in how much we do when who you are has been established and is unshakable in Christ. There will always be more, but find your room to rest in it. Find a space for your mind to ease. Find a place for your heart to mend if it needs to.
No matter how chaotic it all may seem right now, the only real way through it is to lean into the One who calls you to rest and abide in Him. Cast the chaos aside and see the depth of love poured out for you. Dwell in it. Soak it in. Abide in it.
It was costly and a blessing that was purchased through Christ accomplishing everything on the Cross that needed to be done so that you can have this available at every moment. Don’t be blinded by the ever evolving list like I am sometimes. I hope to walk in this truth that landed in my heart yesterday in a sustained way. It is surely a blessing to know it, and it will be an even bigger one to rest in.
