Being forty has not been kind to my ego. I used to be able to eat anything, exercise NEVER, and not gain a pound. I smugly used to quip that it was because I didn't diet, I ate all the time and my metabolism thanked me for it. ahem... Now that I am hitting the middle of my life, life is hitting my middle. No, for those that know me personally, I am not overtly heavy. I am just softer around the middle, a bit thicker in the thigh and nothing I seem to do will make this change. Some have said stress is the reason, some have giggled and chided me for not sticking to a routine. Whatever the reason, it isn't leaving and it has brought to mind another aspect of my life.
As we age, we gather things. Remember your grandmother's house? Mine was packed with trinkets, furniture, odds and ends... Stuff that had been collecting over a lifetime lived and enjoyed. (My grandmother also gathered around her middle too... But we won't think about that.) The things I remember about my Grandma are not the things that she had sitting on shelves or tucked away in drawers and closets, however. The memories I have of her are the stories she told, the times I was allowed to sit in her lap even when I was way too big, the advice she would give me when I seemed to be about to come apart at the seems. A favorite was when she told me that there will always be laundry to do, always dishes to be washed, but the time we spend with our kids when they are little we can never get back. It taught me to take time to look up, enjoy the moment and keep life in perspective. It is the cornerstone of my book as well.
We keep ourselves in constant motion in this modern day. It isn't "efficient" to just drive our cars any more. We need to be talking on our phones, making connections, listening to the news. Multitasking has become a way of life and we miss so darned much when we don't look up and take in the beauty that God created to keep us sane and productive. If you have been in the market for a job these days you know how important it is do be able to multitask. If you can't, you are likely still looking. Living on the edge of insanity has somehow become the norm, doing too many things and not doing anything well.
In theory, it's necessary, it's a benefit... it's all great. But in practice, can I be so bold as to say, it's somewhat disastrous. We end up carrying around a lot of baggage in our little Bag Lady carts that we are frankly not supposed to be carrying. We begin to pile so much on our cart that we can't see over the mess of it. We bump into folks and don't say excuse me because we never see them coming or going! We run right over the purpose of God in our lives when we take on so much it clouds our vision of Him as well.
It's time to lose some weight! It's time to take stock of all that stuff in our carts and determine if it is there because God put it there or because we thought we could handle it. Do you have enough time in your day to stop and kiss your wife or husband? Does your family know you'd come running if called? Would you answer if the call was from a family member? If you have any doubts, it's time to inventory your cart. Take the first step and pray God would shine a light on things that you can chuck to get a clearer vision of His purpose. He wants you to see the bright and wonderful world He created just for you, not the mounds of things that have been stacked to the ceiling around you.
Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ - that's where the action is. See things from his perspective. (Colossians 3:2)
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