Living Life for Christ Alone

Have you ever felt like life's many troubles, pains, challenges and pressures line up at your bed to greet you the moment you wake up?  This has been me the last couple weeks... I wake up in the morning, and there they are clamoring for my attention. I think through one and come to a conclusion about it, and then the next one takes its turn. And then, when I have thought through them all, the first one comes around again with another side to the issue to get me thinking again. Fix it mode is a very real thing, and not just for men. We want control, we want to see wrongs made right, we want our world to be put back in order, we just want peace. And before long, we become consumed.  Have you ever been here? It comes in many different forms... You could call it worry. You could call it fear. You could call it anxiety. You could call it control. You could call it a search for stability. You could call it a desire for things to be fixed. You could call it a pity party. You could ca...

The lights are out, and I sit in the rocking chair holding my sixteen-month-old, singing softly to her and rocking slowly in the rocking chair.  I close my eyes and breathe. It is quiet, except for the sound of the noise machine and air conditioning running. The sun peers just a little around the door, but it is just the right atmosphere to coax her to sleep. As I hum, I look down at her face. The pacifier is in her mouth and her blankie by her face. She looks so cozy there all snuggled up to me.  And then, her eyes start blinking slowly. Sleep starts taking over. One by one, whatever cares she had, she lets go of. I feel her muscles relax. If her hands were playing with something, they go limp. Her breathing gets deep. And all of a sudden, it is as if time stands still.  I can't explain it, but I never get tired of this moment. It is magical. It rights all wrongs in the day. The morning could have been chaotic and messy, but it doesn't take away from this moment. Instead...

"'...You are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed , and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.'" (Jesus to Martha in Luke 10:41-42) How complicated life can become!  At one moment, we are on a mountaintop and see everything clearly, and then as we wade into life's many deep waters, perspective can easily be replaced with foggy thinking.  Confession time: I found myself here this last week... It wasn't fun to have gone from such clarity to so much fog so easily.  The mountaintop of clarity was quickly replaced with a pit of sluggish mud that seemed to drag my feet down, down, down... away from simplicity, which had  been producing joy.  The worries Martha was experiencing are the types of worries I was starting to experience all. the. time.  Let's see... How did Jesus put it? "You are worried and troubled about many things."  Ugh. That's  SO  me.  How do I explain?  ...Well, ...

“’If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest?’” Luke 12:26 This question that Jesus posed echoed in my mind as I pondered the topic of anxiety. We have experienced another worldwide flood. Not a flood of water, but of anxiety. You can find it in almost every section of society. There is hardly a person who is untouched by it. I myself am not exempt from it, which is why I find myself writing about it today. This verse in the Proverbs sums up the hidden state of mind of those who are controlled by it: “Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression…” Proverbs 12:25 It explains why much of our world is depressed from one degree to another. It explains why at certain points in my life, I have plunged into depression too. Have you struggled with this? This morning, I decided to dig into scripture to see what God Himself says about anxiety. Maybe it will help someone out there. It certainly has helped me! Here are just a few obs...