Far Too Busy Living
Posted by: Randy in Uncategorized, tags: devotion, God, Jesus, life, loveO sleep, where art thou? It is 5:30 am and I have been awake since 2:45, and finally gave up the battle of trying to return to the bliss of rest at 3:50 when I finally got up. Between two daughters who got home at the ungodly hour of 3 am (after watching a midnight showing of Transformers, go figure), and being afraid that every time I turned over I would hear the squeal of Max being transformed from poodle to pancake, I felt “led” to get up.
As I sit here in the pre-dawn moments of a new day, I am thinking about life. I am enjoying Cathleen Falsani’s book Sin Boldy- A Field Guide for Grace. I have never read anything by her before, but this book is refreshing. It is a simple collection of stories from her life that illustrate God’s grace in different ways.
As I was reading a chapter about her experiences in a very poor area in Kenya, she made a remark about the women there that slapped me in the face. As she talked about the women’s energy and ingenuity in their work, even in the most difficult of living situations, she said this, “They had no time for despair. They are far too busy living.” SMACK!
“Far too busy LIVING.” Now that grabbed my attention. I thought about the reality in my own life that whenever I found myself depressed, doubting, and despairing, I have stopped living. In those times I have chosen to throw the car of life into “park”, and refuse to journey on and enjoy the ride. I cannot enjoy the sights, sounds and people around me, because I am too busy navel gazing while sitting in the drivers seat.
The fact is, I have cut myself off from the source of real life and that is Jesus. After all, He Himself said that He is the Way, the Truth, and the LIFE. Despair says that God has turned His back on me, and that there is just no reason to go on. Despair says that there is no purpose in life, no rhyme or reason to any of it. It tells me that I am sinking in a pit too deep for me (or God for that matter), to get me out of, so why go on. Just sit and sulk, and cry, “Woe is me.” Ever been there?
I remember Jesus telling a guy one time what the definition of real living was. As always, He made it real simple. So simple that even “I” can get it! He basically said that if you love God with your whole being, and other people as yourself, you would live (Luke 10:27-28). Real life is found in loving God and loving others. We love in order to live and we live in order to love.
Because He lives in us, His love has filled our hearts (Romans 5:5), and that love has to go somewhere! It has to be expressed both upward (towards Father), and outward (towards others). Whenever we are doing this, even in the simplest of ways, we are living. When we are not, we cease living in the truest since of the word, and start trying to find life in things that can only bring death. Then you know what happens? Yep, despair shows up at the door with a great big smile on his face. He is ready to move in and set up house keeping.
The women Cathleen spoke of were far too busy loving God and others in what they were doing, that they had no time or place for despair.
I want to live! I want to sieze the day and live it to the hilt. Yet, I realize that when I look back at my life, far too many of my days have been spent just “existing” and “getting” by, and not really living. Despair and I have spent more time together than I care to remember. So, today Papa, as I sit here listening to the birds waking up and singing a song of welcome to the rising sun, I want to live. Let Your life in me, a life that is love itself, find expression upward and outward today. In word, thought and deed, let Your love flow out of me, so that when I do put my head down on a pillow later on (and I am looking forward to that!), I will know that by Your grace, I lived!
I hope that today you will have no time for despair, because you too, are far too busy living!
The Highlander
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