“Our Lord meets us in the mundane moments of life, transforming them into opportunities to encounter his love afresh.”
Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – September 9, 2021
Jesus replied, Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. John 14:23, NIV
In recent weeks, I have found myself engaged in one of the most familiar of all parent/child battles: cleaning. In our home, we encourage our children to keep their rooms clean, (hopefully) learning discipline and self-respect in the process. And yet, miraculously, my children often struggle to embrace this chore with the same joy and excitement that my wife and I have around assigning it, instead seeing it as an impossible burden that no child should ever have to bear! Usually, the degree of protest is directly tied to the severity of the situation. The dirtier the room, the greater the impossibility!
I mention this because these are the types of moments that our Lord presents to us as daily opportunities for wisdom and growth. Our Lord meets us in the mundane moments of life, transforming them into opportunities to encounter his love afresh. And so often, if we have the eyes to see it, our simple and even silly struggles reveal the nature of life itself.
Take our dirty room, for example. In and of itself, a room with clothes, books, and Legos strewn across the floor doesn’t seem all that significant, or the source of any great inspiration. And yet, there is a universal truth in moments like these, if we have the eyes to see it. For a child, it is easy to be overcome by the size of the task. The individual pieces of the puzzle are obscured by their collective weight, creating a sense of hopelessness. “I just can’t do it! It’s too messy!”
When we swap out Legos and books for mortgages, taxes, personal health, workplace tensions, and complex family dynamics, the responses can be remarkably similar! “It’s just too much,” or in the spirit of a now passé meme, “I can’t even…” The details may be different, but our hearts are remarkably consistent at any age or stage of life.
As a parent, it is my job to help my child step back from the ledge and reframe the situation, showing them that it isn’t nearly as dire as they think. Start small, I say, and find one thing that you can do. Pick up one book, fold one shirt, close one drawer. Don’t worry about the rest of it- we’ll get there in time. Again, how often do we as adults need to hear these words?
Our Lord longs to come and make his home with us, and it is from this place of intimacy that he teaches us how to take the next step of obedience. Trust him with the big picture, and focus your time and energy on sustainable acts of faithful obedience. As Jesus reminds us, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34).
Prayer
Father, keep our hearts from worry, trusting instead that you are in control and we therefore have nothing to fear, and no task is too hard or impossible when you come and make your home with us, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Application
What is the one thing you can do today that moves your life a little closer to Christ? Start small, and continue in faithfulness, one day at a time.
Related Reading
Deuteronomy 28:1; Proverbs 6:20; James 1:22
Worship Resource
Paul Zach: Just a Closer Walk With Thee
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