“You care too much,” people tell you. Things
bother you too much. You worry about what is right, what is good, what is best.
You see the gap between what should be and what is, and you are frustrated and
paralyzed.
It is not that you care too much. Truth is,
you don’t care enough. You care, and you get busy organizing: trying to change
people and things and systems. You move them about like toys in the nursery. As
if these issues were so small and insignificant as to be fixed by mere action
on your part. Your work shows that you believe in the world and not in the
Lord. You fail to recognize the complete failure of the world, and yourself as
part of it.
Even if all the people in the whole world
got together and agreed on solutions to these problems, what then? They would
still fail. Why? Because we are the problem. It is in us and it is us.
But God says “rejoice in the Lord.”
When you are tempted to fix everything, and
especially when that red warning light goes on in your head—the anxiety light—stop!
Know that you are running low on batteries and you need to plug into God.
Realize that God wants to be your only power source. Your batteries are
defective, broken. When you run on batteries, nothing can go right. Find God’s
extension cord instead. Think on Him. Read His word. Sing His songs. Focus on
good things—these are God’s gifts and messages to you. Those things you are
trying to fix? Leave them where they are.
Take out God’s maintenance form number
seven. Write out the problem in detail and put it into His request box. Then
wait. God runs a mean and effective machine shop. He has resources and
knowledge you cannot even begin to imagine. But he does want those forms filled
out completely. He wants to hear about every single thing that is broken. He is
not fond of whining, mind you. He will address your problem, so you will
want to thank Him in advance. Do not be too quick to tell Him how to do His
job.
Just one more reminder: stay out of God’s
way. His plan for some damaged and damaging thing, or a system that needs
correction, a management issue that needs re-booting, may be to blow something
up, fire someone, or reorganize a department. You do not want to be around
tinkering with something, duct taping the problem, when that happens. You are
like a toddler in a machine shop: you need someone older and wiser around, so
you don’t cause damage and get hurt yourself. Your Father, the experienced machinist,
has got this. Your job is to hold onto Him and trust Him. In time, He will set
you in His lap, hold your hand, and let you help him. He loves to do that.
For God’s part, if you submit the
maintenance forms consistently, and especially when the warning light signals
you, He promises to stay with you as an armed guard over your inner self. This
you will neither see nor understand, but somehow Jesus made it possible. Be in
community with His other children. Get along with them. The good things you see
them doing, you do them, too. God will give you His peace. He invented it, after
all.
- a paraphrase/adaptation of Phil 4:4-9
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