Yesterday was Easter Sunday. And as I reflected on all that meant throughout the days leading up to it, I realized how guilty I felt.
I have become so consumed with busyness, with wedding planning, with worldly stuff that my focus on primarily serving the Lord feels muddied. Now, don’t get me wrong – I know that planning a wedding that reflects the Gospel and points others to Christ is valuable and by no means wasted. It’s just that all too often I find my perspective needs adjusting.
When I take a step back from my own life and put my focus on God, I remember that most of what I deal with here is the “small stuff.” I think of that phrase, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” There’s actually a book titled “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, and It’s All Small Stuff.”
I’ve never read the book, but I feel that statement couldn’t be more true.
When I take that step back and look at my life from a bigger picture, from the perspective of eternity, from God’s point of view, I am just a blip on the radar, a wrinkle in the ocean, a vapor in the wind.
“I am a flower quickly fading, here today and gone tomorrow, a wave tossed in the ocean, a vapor in the wind.” – I Am Yours
I may be “here today and gone tomorrow” in the span of eternity, but that doesn’t mean my God doesn’t have great plans for my life. That doesn’t mean He doesn’t want to use me in big ways for His purposes and for His glory… if I let Him.
But in order to be used by God, I must surrender all that I am to Him. I must come before Him daily, arms outstretched, empty hands offered up to Him. I cannot be the hands of God if my fists are clenched with selfish and fleeting pursuits. And I cannot be the feet of God that bring the hope of Jesus to others if they are firmly planted on the ground of my comfort zone.
So I readjust my focus and only by God’s grace does my heart become transformed. Only by His mercy am I forgiven day after day. It’s only by His great love that I am welcomed back in His arms when I continue to fall short day after day. And it is only by Jesus working in me that I am able to offer up a heart abandoned that seeks to live fully for Him.
“So I’ll stand, with arms high and heart abandoned, in awe of the One who gave it all. I’ll stand, my soul, Lord, to your surrendered, all I am is yours.” – Hillsong, Stand
I need a constant reminder to stand up from where I am complacently seated. I am in constant need to reach out my hands, offering up my life to the One who gave it to me. I desperately need Jesus, every hour of every day, to take root and to take over my heart that I would live my life as a blazing offering to Him.
“Give me faith to trust what you say, that Your good and Your love is great. I’m broken inside; I give you my life.” – Elevation Worship, Give Me Faith
“Lord, I need you. Oh, I need you. Every hour I need you. My one defense, my righteousness, oh God how I need you.” – Matt Maher, Lord, I Need You
“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” – Romans 12:1-2, The Message
