Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. (I Peter 5:7)
Worry, worry, worry, stress, stress and more stress – that’s what daily life can sometimes feel like.
It doesn’t matter if you are the CEO of a company, a nursing student working on state boards, or a mother seeing the child she loves turn out bad: stress is a killer and a present thing in this life.
No matter what our best intentions are, we often never seem to find time to relax and unwind our troubled minds. We want to spend time with our families, but we have to pay the rent, the utilities, the car insurance, Bobby needs shoes and Sally needs a costume for school, and we need to cut coupons and we need to, and need to, and need to . . . meanwhile, our lives are dashing away from us, and we hardly know what enjoying life means anymore.
And then we’re old, empty nesters and there is no one to talk to but the cats or the dog and the stress of loneliness settles over us like a cloud and we wonder if what we lived was worth what we have now.
A country song I heard recently had as it’s chorus:
“I’m in a hurry to get things done
and I rush and rush until life’s no fun
all I really need to do is live and die
but I’m in a hurry and don’t know why” (Alabama, 1992)
Is your life like that?
Jesus told us to consider the lilies and how they grow, and the sparrows that fly everywhere. He asked the crowd who takes care of them, how do such fragile things survive? He told the crowd that their heavenly Father cares for them. Their lives were simple and beautiful and happy.
Have you ever looked at simplifying your life? Is everything on your to do (or to acquire) list really so direly needed that it is worth trading your life for it?
Consider asking yourself, “Is this thing I want worth this many hours of my life to get?” Money is actually just an intermediary used for trading hours of your life for an object or a need.
Is the thing you are considering worth a piece of your short existence?
In the grand story of the redemption of this planet, will it really matter whether you drove a Chevy or a BMW in the end? Will the thing stand between you and God, or is it likely to cause someone else to covet and start running madly around trying to match it?
Think about simplifying your life to what’s really important.
Is the ball game on TV or your child’s request to read to them of more consequence? Watching the next episode of that reality show, or helping at a shelter or a free meal program for the homeless?
Ask God His opinion. Find what is really important, and live simpler.
You won’t regret stepping out of the endless hamster wheel of modern life and into the vineyard to work a few hours with God.
The Sonshine is grand out here, and there’s a heavenly breeze blowing in your soul.
He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent. – St. Augustine