Did you ever stop to think what you might do with your life if you never had to go to work another day? How would you spend your time? How would you fill your days? Most of us don’t even have to consider that scenario because we are not at the point in life where we have enough money to quit our jobs. I often dream though about living in a beach cottage spending my days watching the ocean waves crashing around, doing what they do. I have illusions of long walks with my love, soaking in the rays and maybe having time to write a little here and there. Other times, I find myself traveling to exotic places in my thoughts and having the time to actually stop and photograph the beautiful scenery all around me. I love nature’s scenery and love even more when I am able to capture a piece of it on my camera so that I can share and remember that moment always.
All of these ideas would certainly bring me happiness…no job, unlimited income, beach living, traveling and having time to enjoy my husband and my hobbies in life. As a Christian, I am not sure it would bring me joy however. For in my years on this earth, I have grown to learn that my life in this dimension is not here for my enjoyment. Rather, it is a training ground for my eternal life in heaven to come. If I were to spend my days just doing the things that make me happy, I think I would quickly become discontent. For I have found the things that bring me true fulfillment and joy are those things that I do for God.
I get so excited when we have a harvest moon. Do you know what I’m talking about? Have you ever seen it when it looks like you could reach out and touch the beautiful, full, orange moon? I have tried on occasion to photograph it as it appears so huge and majestic on the horizon before ascending into the sky. No matter how hard I try, I cannot make my photos even closely represent its awesomeness in real life. Once it ascends into the sky, it’s still pretty but nothing like it is while it is so close to us here on the earth.
Jim and I were talking about it the other day and he reminded me, “Lori, the moon that you see so brilliantly on the horizon is the same moon you see in the sky. There’s no difference. It’s just when it is against the big dark sky, you have no perspective as to its size like you do when it is beside something here on earth.” I thought about that. Wow. He’s right. Sometimes it is so close that I feel like I can touch it and other times it seems so distant, I even forget it is there. Isn’t that like it is with God? We often get so wrapped up into our lives that we forget how big God really is. We look at our problems and lose our perspective. He seems so distant and uncaring at times. We pray and pray and never seem to get answers. We begin to think He can’t handle our problems. Maybe we need to get involved. Maybe this job is just too big for God. We’ve all been there.
Sometimes we just need to be reminded that the God who created the earth and saved us from our sins is the same God who reigns in heaven today awaiting our arrival someday. As we draw closer and closer to Him, He is magnified—it is as though we can reach out and touch Him. As the chaos invades our lives, we lose our focus on the important things and start serving our own selves, He becomes smaller and smaller as we fade farther and farther away from Him into our deep, dark sky so to speak.
Maybe we need to adjust our thinking. For example, what does your prayer list look like? Mine usually has things like, please sell my house, help me sell houses and books so I can make a living, protection over my husband, children and their families, etc. You get the picture. I challenge you this week to forget your wish list as you have your daily devotions. Spend time simply focusing on how big and wonderful God truly is. Praise Him for loving you and caring for you even when you don’t feel Him so close to you right now. Instead of asking Him to do things on your checklist, ask Him what you can do for Him. Ask The Holy Spirit to make the requests on your prayer list be His requests and not yours. Beg God to come near—let you feel how huge He really is and how small the sufferings in this life are in comparison to that which is eternal to come.
For the same God who walked along with the disciples here on earth is the same God who has now ascended into the sky into His heavenly realm. He wants us to cling to Him and know of His majesty even through the tough times in life. He doesn’t want our joy to be dependent on our circumstances or surroundings; rather, He wants to fill us with joy that goes beyond anything we can imagine or explain–just like the difficulty in conveying the true beauty of the harvest moon in a photograph.
God desires us to draw near. Even when He seems so distant and far from our reach, cry out to Him! He’s still the same, it’s just that our perception has been altered. He wants to be SO BIG and bright in our lives that we will no longer even see the chaos, our suffering won’t matter anymore and our wish list will surprisingly become insignificant. He wants to change our dark skies to blue! The truth is, He is way bigger than anything we face in this life.
James 4:8 (NKJV) Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
Lori Kempton, Author/Speaker 