Today, like every other day, I was talking to my mom on the
phone. I was filling her in on my day and on the inner workings of my brain.
The Lord has been working on me a lot in the past few weeks. Ever since Good Friday’s Secret Church service
I have been wrecked. In the best way possible, the Lord has started reworking
my thinking.
I’m starting to see a
pattern: when I think I start to get a handle on this whole gospel thing, the
Lord points out where I can do better, and leads me in the way everlasting. I get wrecked for the gospel.
I spent the past week
living intentionally and more gospel focused than I have in a while. Toward the
end of the week, my thoughts started drifting.
The enemy always knows exactly where to take my brain to get me off
track; the same place he takes a lot of twenty-somethings mind's: singleness.
I shared with my mom that I just wasn’t sure if I would ever
be in a successful relationship that ended in marriage. A marriage relationship was a beautiful
picture of Christ’s love for the church, could be a testimony to God’s work
in my life, and I wanted that. I just wasn’t sure it would happen. In this conversation, my mom stopped me and
said what I needed to hear more than anything: “You know, you already have
that.”
“That’s just a human example of the even greater relationship
that you already take part in.”
Perspective. Just
when I felt blinded by what this world has to offer the Lord sent the
unsurpassed, earthly wisdom of my mother.
If you hold it in your possession, you don’t necessarily
need the picture. It’s a nice way to
remember it, but if we are distracted by the picture instead of letting it
point to the real thing, it loses its beautiful purpose.
Why is it that I can only see what’s right in front of me?
When doubts start to flood my perspective, it’s time to step back and simply
say, “I already have that.” Whatever it is I wish I had, I already have it, only greater. Lord I need: a companion, a
friend, a spouse, joy, encouragement, love, etc. "You know, I already
have that."
And because we serve a risen Savior, a day is coming when I
will have it to the absolute fullest and I will delight only in my Lord without
distraction.
Please if you don’t already have that; get it. Call on His
name and you can have all that you need. It won’t always look the way you want.
Sometimes it will. Sometimes he will surprise you. But it will always be
better. Serving him requires daily sacrifice, but it ends with the fulfillment of the deepest desires our hearts know.
Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4
See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:24
