Sara J. Mikkelson
You’re running late. Someone forgot to send that thing you need to meet that deadline tomorrow, so you’re scrambling to figure out something else. Things are tense at work. Bedtime is not happening like it should for these kids. You’re favorite sweater shrank in the wash. You’re exhausted. Your work space and car look like they’ve been ransacked. Those dear people who know exactly what NOT to say and just the WRONG time to say it decide they need to enlighten you with their wisdom. Even worse, you let someone you love down, hurt a friend with your words, and forgot to pray. You did some hurtful things out of selfish fear or pride. Things are falling apart. You made a really big mess – of everything.
In our broken, sin-filled world, life gets messy some days. You look at the seemingly perfect, godly lives of “Sweet Sister Sally” and “Bold Brother Ben”, wondering what’s wrong with you and why you can’t become quite like them. Then, you look at pictures of starving children in Africa and feel guilty for thinking you have a lot of problems to solve. The real problem is that we humans tend to focus way too much on comparing everything and everyone. In comparing people, lives, things, values, character traits, etc., we tend to get caught up focusing on PEOPLE – both ourselves and other people – which is the first major mistake of human history. We are created in the image of God, made to live with Him and love Him. Our Creator God and His glory are meant to be our forever firm focus – not other people or ourselves!
When Adam and Eve originally chose to disobey God in the Garden of Eden, they were choosing to focus on their selves. Satan first questioned their trust in God, “hath God said . . . “ He questioned our Lord’s motives (Gen. 3:5), trying to convince Eve and Adam that maybe God didn’t really have their best interest in mind. Satan started by insulting the character and Word of God, then turning the focus on the created people (Eve and Adam) instead of the Person of the Lord. When we forget just Who God is and what His character is like (how He is love and life), we tend to trust Him less, which leads to sin.
When life gets crazy and problems come, in the midst of it all, remember to be still and turn your focus on WHO our Creator God is, instead of whatever the problems are or how you (or other people) are going to fix them. Personally, I tend to be task-oriented and want to solve problems. It’s easy for me to get caught up in all the “doing”. But it’s not about what we do: it’s all about WHO God is! So the next time you start to get anxious because the wedding is tomorrow and the cows are in the corn, remember to think about Who God is and how He has worked throughout history. He is faithful and trustworthy.
Copyright Sara J. Bruegel, January 2016
