When Life Gets Full

I've been thinking about rest lately and how I often seek it by getting away from my everyday life - taking days off from work, going golfing, getting away to a cabin/hotel for a night and occasionally a trip to a tropical destination. So many times that I have done this my body and mind experience a reprieve from the constant stresses of life - and it is good! But as with most of us, when I return to my regular life I am quickly consumed by old situations and the rest that I have accumulated is quickly spent.

A few weeks ago things began to shift for me. I was coming out of an extended period of 'rest'. I had taken 2 months off from itinerant ministry to be at home with my wife and 3 kids. (Our twins had just turned 7 months old and we were all exhausted!) I had begun to catch up on much needed sleep and my mind was beginning to function normally again. Deep down I began to reconnect with a longing I had for places of intimate worship and community. Places that I had not been to in a few years due to the craziness of our lives (kids, moving, new jobs etc). But as I unplugged from the chaos of my life this hunger for God's presence began to re-emerge. What happened next was truly a blessing.

My wife Rhonda and I received a CD containing a message entitled "Encountering the Affections of God". We popped it into our player and got nailed right in the center of our souls! It was exactly what we had been craving for months!! God had provided us with a precious gift, the gift of His spirit alive in us again! Over the course of the next 3 weeks I began listening to this CD over and over. Every chance I got I was reconnecting with God and it was beginning to stir things in me that I hadn't felt in a number of years.

During that time I regained my hunger for God's word, for worship and for prayer. I would be drawn to worship CD's that I would play over and over again while I watched my kids play. I couldn't, and still can not get enough of God's presence!

Then I had a very interesting experience yesterday. Our church staff went on a two day retreat to focus and plan our upcoming teaching series. Normally I look forward to unplugging from my life and getting some peace and quiet, but this time was different. I had no desire to unplug! I wanted to stay plugged in to my life. Sure I enjoyed spending an hour at a local spa, going for dinner and playing some Settlers of Catan, but something was missing. Unplugging didn't bring with it the same feelings of relief that I once longed for. And then I realized something that I hope will stay with me for the rest of my life. I didn't want to unplug from my life because my everyday ordinary life was filling me with an abundance of Life!

I didn't need to get away to reconnect with God, or get physical or mental rest. I was experiencing a daily renewal of my mind, body and spirit by staying in God's presence on a daily basis...and here's the kicker...in the midst of my real life!

It reminded me of something the apostle Paul wrote to the Romans many years ago...

"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." Romans 12: 1-2 (MSG)

And so I began to put a few God truths together for myself

1) My life is a gift from God and everything I have comes from Him (James)
2) God has a plan for me and it is a great one! (Jeremiah)
3) God's desire is that I encounter the fullness of His love for me (Ephesians)
4) Embracing what God does for me is the best thing I can do for Him (Romans)

So....if God gave me my seemingly chaotic life, with the wife, job and three kids....AND He desires for me to encounter the fullness of His love....AND He asks me to give him my everyday life...then I must conclude that I don't need to get away from my life to encounter fulfillment, I need to encounter God in the midst of it!

I can't live my life disconnected from reality, the reality that God created and designed for me. I have to live the life He gave me. After all, if He has designed it for me and longs for me to encounter the fullness of His love through my life, then I must conclude that I can and will experience Him right in the middle of my wife, job and three kids on a daily basis! And guess what? I have!!!!!

If we keep trying to get away from our God given lives in order to find Him, I think we are missing the point. He wants us to encounter him IN it and THROUGH it! We must learn to plug IN to what God has for us today and stop trying to get away from it. If I run away from my life, the life God gifted to me (a good and perfect gift) then I will never enter into abundant living. I will have settled for a weekend getaway with Jesus when he has asked me to come and make my home in him. To live with him. Living with him daily!

I have begun to experience a deeper joy for my family, for my surroundings, the relationships God has given me and most of all a greater hunger for God. It is the truth of abiding in Him. That all things truly flow out from His presence. And I believe that if the church got a hold of this reality we would stop trying to check out of our lives and start living through them.

So the next time you feel like checking out, I invite you to plug in to the day that God has gifted you with. I think you'll love what you find!