Life is a Gift to be Cherished
As Pastor Dave noted in his last message, sometimes it takes a difficulty or something painful to knock us off center and create sacred space for us to grow spiritually. As he said this, I was praying God would hit me with something that would knock me off center. I felt I couldn’t see beyond myself at the time and it was making me miserable.
Later in the week, I found out that I was supposed to go back in to the doctor to see if I needed a biopsy two years ago. However, I had somehow misunderstood the notification to go back in for more testing. After the biopsy, I started to realize that my life is not guaranteed to be long.
Looking at life from a place that each day is a gift one cannot take for granted, I realized deeper that what really matters most is not what one receives or accomplishes, but how one spends their life and invests in others. What matters most is where I have invested myself in my family, staff at work, people I care about, and others that I have connected with. Have I made any difference in anyone else’s life but my own? Do I love others to life?
Fenelon notes that we must live life in the present exactly as God has given us, not in what we hope for or expect. When we are given difficulties, we must embrace them just the same as winds of favor. The important thing is that we stay connected to the present. “Here in the love of Christ I stand” sings in the background. We need to receive His love just where we are and how He wants to love us, not how we want to be loved by him.
A friend of mine wrote the following quote on her Facebook page: "...wrestle with the discrepancy between what we think God should do & what he actually does & allow that struggle to edit our ... image of God. If we wrestle with these questions with the lamp of God's Word by our side, an increasingly accurate portrait of God will emerge from our faith struggle, a portrait that is strong enough to trust in, good enough to wait for, & wild enough to never be contained..." A B Chole
Fenelon notes that a baby does not have anything it can really call its own. So many times, I want to hold on to everything around me and call it mine --my husband, my son, my church, my job, my friends. When I call it mine, I begin to set expectations around it and control or manipulate circumstances to protect it. I get defensive when what is “mine” is threatened. However, God would not have us grasp hold of anything. If we see what is provided to us as a gift from God on loan to us and His to maintain and hold, we will cherish it and have gratitude for it but we will not try to squeeze life out of it or hold onto it.
Fenelon notes that we should not hold on to anything. Instead Fenelon writes that we are to forget ourselves and give away every silly notion that we are some spiritual person, have the right answers, or that we can do some great work for God. All of this is about self love. Instead, “Unplug from all that pressure, and let everyone else and everything else take the front. You move quickly to the back.” Fenelon also notes not to make our prayers about what we have reasoned out but let them come from our hearts – from what we love.
Lord, none of what you have given me is truly mine. It is all a gift for me to treasure and cherish. When I step off this earth, someone else will step into many areas where I walked. I pray to be someone who has spent my life wisely, pouring it out on others until there is there is nothing left. I long to leave this earth empty of myself and full of your love. Forgive me where I shrink back from living life to the fullest. Teach me your ways and strengthen me to live life the way you would have me live --seizing every moment as a gift from you.
Later in the week, I found out that I was supposed to go back in to the doctor to see if I needed a biopsy two years ago. However, I had somehow misunderstood the notification to go back in for more testing. After the biopsy, I started to realize that my life is not guaranteed to be long.
Looking at life from a place that each day is a gift one cannot take for granted, I realized deeper that what really matters most is not what one receives or accomplishes, but how one spends their life and invests in others. What matters most is where I have invested myself in my family, staff at work, people I care about, and others that I have connected with. Have I made any difference in anyone else’s life but my own? Do I love others to life?
Fenelon notes that we must live life in the present exactly as God has given us, not in what we hope for or expect. When we are given difficulties, we must embrace them just the same as winds of favor. The important thing is that we stay connected to the present. “Here in the love of Christ I stand” sings in the background. We need to receive His love just where we are and how He wants to love us, not how we want to be loved by him.
A friend of mine wrote the following quote on her Facebook page: "...wrestle with the discrepancy between what we think God should do & what he actually does & allow that struggle to edit our ... image of God. If we wrestle with these questions with the lamp of God's Word by our side, an increasingly accurate portrait of God will emerge from our faith struggle, a portrait that is strong enough to trust in, good enough to wait for, & wild enough to never be contained..." A B Chole
Fenelon notes that a baby does not have anything it can really call its own. So many times, I want to hold on to everything around me and call it mine --my husband, my son, my church, my job, my friends. When I call it mine, I begin to set expectations around it and control or manipulate circumstances to protect it. I get defensive when what is “mine” is threatened. However, God would not have us grasp hold of anything. If we see what is provided to us as a gift from God on loan to us and His to maintain and hold, we will cherish it and have gratitude for it but we will not try to squeeze life out of it or hold onto it.
Fenelon notes that we should not hold on to anything. Instead Fenelon writes that we are to forget ourselves and give away every silly notion that we are some spiritual person, have the right answers, or that we can do some great work for God. All of this is about self love. Instead, “Unplug from all that pressure, and let everyone else and everything else take the front. You move quickly to the back.” Fenelon also notes not to make our prayers about what we have reasoned out but let them come from our hearts – from what we love.
Lord, none of what you have given me is truly mine. It is all a gift for me to treasure and cherish. When I step off this earth, someone else will step into many areas where I walked. I pray to be someone who has spent my life wisely, pouring it out on others until there is there is nothing left. I long to leave this earth empty of myself and full of your love. Forgive me where I shrink back from living life to the fullest. Teach me your ways and strengthen me to live life the way you would have me live --seizing every moment as a gift from you.
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