I'm really working on being content, being present, and embracing the things God has for me right now, right here...I think a lot of the trust really comes from that idea of "blooming where you are planted." Like being faithful with the opportunities God gives me today...and knowing he will give me the next ones. It helps me not miss all the exciting stuff here and now.
The other day someone asked me about some of this..and I started explaining and I was so happy/excited.. I think they thought I was kidding...
It's those reactions from people you haven't seen/talked to in a while that show growth, you know... in whatever area. Like when someone slowly looses weight...it is always the person you haven't seen that it is most noticeable to.
I feel like I'm always posting people's questions and struggles that unveil our imperfections and our attempts to make it through each day when, in reality, we have no idea what in the world we're even doing most of the time. Hopefully, through all of it, you know you aren't alone as you process, over-analyze and do crazy things. Today, though, I wanted you to be encouraged by someone I talked to recently who has it all figured out.
Okay, not really (because, who does...), but I wanted to extend hope from someone else's words. That there's a steady assurance that can arise in trusting the Lord right where you are. There doesn't need to be answers to your thousands of questions about what's next (in any area of life), but seizing the moments before you instead. Living in the present, not the future...not the past.
I also want to encourage you that, oftentimes, change doesn't happen overnight. Sometimes it's slow and gradual- so slow you don't even know it's happening. Sometimes, like my friend said, you lose some weight over a long stretch of time and you hardly even notice until you're reunited with an old buddy and they immediately go on and on about how great and thin you look. Sometimes it's from a parent when you go home after months or years of being away. Suddenly you're serving them instead of demanding that they serve you. It's not anything unnatural to you at this point-it just seems like the right thing to do, a way to bless them. But, when they're used to a selfish teenager who lived in their house for several years, this slow and gradual change (that might have taken ten years) seems like a miracle!
And I guess that's the hope for all of us. That we're living, that we're seeking, that we're striving... and somedays we might be so ticked off because we feel like we aren't making any progress at all. We feel defeated because we mess up again and again. But then one day... one day we wake up and we realize we're a different person. We almost don't even recognize ourselves.
I think we're far too often discouraged that we aren't transformed overnight. We pray and we try so hard to become different people. I think maybe we forget that we're slowly becomING different people each day, despite our best efforts to speed up the process.
I can't wait for the day when we've arrived there...but in the meantime, I hope that we'll all be like my friend: working on being content, being present, and embracing the things that God has for us right now, right here.
You are changing, even if you can't see it.
You're shedding your old skin, one day at a time.
And one day, I promise, you'll wake up... and you won't even recognize yourself. For the first time in your entire life you'll be more yourself than ever before. It's the beauty of the gospel.
There's hope.
Always hope.
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