Gifts
In a previous blog, Don’t Worry About Tomorrow, I was learning what it meant to trust God for this day rather than fret over the days to come. The snowball effect of school is in full swing now, and sometimes the moments of today are so bloated with responsibilities that tomorrow is nowhere in sight. I ask myself, “How am I going to get from point A to point B to eventually point Q today?
My best friend recommended a book to me because she knows my overwhelmed heart better than myself. Because of this book, I have a list going — a list of 1000 things I consider to be a gift to my life from the most ordinary, everyday things such as waking up to a choir of birds singing outside the window to significant blessings that deserve a myriad of thankful prayers such as a job surrounded by Godly people for the summer.
As I read this book, 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp, understanding the principles she was establishing as God-glorifying a single, continuous strand of blessings began to spool out of my mind. I had never actually sat and numbered by hand the daily gifts God lavishes upon me. As a kinesthetic learner, the handwriting concept ensures to inscribe whatever I am trying to memorize or remember into my brain to recall when the test comes.
The test does come – oh yes. Life as a student is full of tests — we are in college! Every day I am quizzed on composers, baroque vs. classical, vocabulary, musical sight-reading, and literature. My heart as well as my mind is tested, as well. Am I going to be ridiculed for that composition? Piano lessons drain the life out of me. Is this career path successful enough?
The temptation to drink the poison of distress is prominent as we college students fly solo in a fallen world of sin and brokenness; our minds and hearts at times are susceptible to relinquishing our Biblical truths.
However, God provides in every moment, even when discouragement veils our beauty-craving eyes. The secret to experiencing the provision of the Lord (which really is no secret at all) is to open those beauty-craving eyes to behold the majesty and pure beauty of our God.
Fully living life each moment of today is a goal I am striving to obtain, even as many moments are heavy with responsibility as I attempt to pick up and bear my own cross. Ultimately, that is what we are called to do. Finding the joy in thankfulness for each moment as we stand in awe of his sovereignty drops us to our knees in worship.
The key to living life fully is finding joy in the smallest moments of the days and seasons that are so full of assignments, obligations and deadlines that you can not remember if you put your head on straight this morning.
CBU – get your hands on this book, buy a journal and start to find the moments of your overwhelming schedule full of joy as you observe the endless beauty of our Creator and continually worship the I Am.
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