Desires mingle with responsibilities daily within my life – and neither seem to be fulfilled to their respective capacities.
It seems I’m always falling short of the mark somewhere most days. This can easily tempt me into feelings of guilt for not even scratching the surface of both areas of my life.
The “I want’s” and “I need to’s” take over my life like kudzu in the middle of a steamy southern summer, and I feel suffocated.
I need air…I need breathing room…I need space!
Where in the world did I get this concept in my mind that my desires and responsibilities usurp my relationship:
1) With God?
2) With myself?
3) With my husband and son?
4) With my friends and people yet to be friends?
Oh, how the world spins a wildly creative and seductive web for all humanity to get tangled up in until we can’t even determine who we even are anymore!
It is painful.
It is guilt-ridden.
It is demolishing to a life.
Upon reading my devotional this morning, I was reminded of the concept of space. As I read about how easily a mother can get engrossed in her home (or anything for that matter) above anything and everything else (including her family), a conviction penetrated my heart:
If I want to desperately spend time with my family & friends, do certain things, and meet certain responsibilities, how about entering into each of these certain spaces fully?
What a novel idea!
“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge —that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
–Eph 3:14-19 (NIV84)
God gave us a message, from Paul, on how to enter into His space.
Kneel…honor.
Strengthen you with power through His spirit…work.
Be rooted in love…rest.
Be filled to the measure…live.
We enter into relationship with Him…and with anyone & anything…in the same ways.
First, honor Christ in all you do. Focus on Him while you engage into spaces.
Second, actively saturate yourself in the spaces you enter into.
Third, simply rest in your spaces and live there.
And forth, be filled full by Him by giving your whole selves and hearts to the spaces (person, desire and/or responsibility) that we’re honoring Him in.
We weren’t created to walk around in crazed and frustrated states for not accomplishing to-do lists…or feeling guilty for not spending time with those we love…or not fully accomplishing the calling we have been called to do.
We were created to be in relationship with Him…to be filled by Him…so we can fulfill what He created for each of us to do and accomplish through the relationships with build with others, and the things we desire and have responsibility over. This in turn gives us the continual example of how we are to always enter into His space, building a deeper relationship with Him.
Relationships aren’t built by trying to make more time with those we love, the things we love doing, and doing the things we need to do. Seeking to do such, will only demolish relationships. Therefore, don’t attempt to make more space for anything or anyone…simply enter fully into the moments you do have, and make the most of the time.
Doing this frees us of guilt, let’s us breathe with God, and let us simply be in the moments we do have in this life. And amazingly, when you function fully in the spaces you have in your life…you’ll be floored with the depth of the relationships you build along with the things you accomplish.
So what will I be doing this weekend…and focusing on beyond it?
Living fully in each moment.
Giving of myself to each moment.
Savoring each moment…and watching my responsibilities transform into joys, desires transform into passions, and relationships blossom into images of God’s bounding beauty.
Want to join me?
