God recently revealed to me how we try to hold on to seasons, events, circumstances, moments in our lives and want to camp there.
We do this with all kinds of things. We experience something that seems successful or that makes us happy, and we want to preserve it, systematize it, institutionalize it. We can, like the guy in the movie Groundhog Day, try to reproduce a moment from the past, whether of love, connectedness, significance, whatever.
But God showed me clearly, “That was for then! I have limitless ideas both now and for your future!” He is a God of unbounded creativity.
Why should we limit ourselves to coloring with the two or three crayons we’ve gotten from Him so far, when He has a box of colors so big, so varied, we could use a different one every hour and never exhaust them in a lifetime!
We should enjoy the special experiences and wonderful moments we have throughout life. But we don’t have to enshrine them with an attitude of, “It’ll never get better than this; good feelings never last.” No! That’s how you turn happiness into depression!
Carrie once sent me flowers while we were in college. I looked at them one morning and God said, “Your future is more beautiful than those flowers!” God wants us to have the attitude, “That was great! I can’t wait to see what’s next!”
The Israelites ate manna for forty years (Exodus 16:33) but then it stopped. No doubt many went out looking for it days afterward because that supply was all they’d ever known. But God wanted them to notice that they’d finally made it to the Promised Land, and it was time to change their focus.
As Moses told them, “For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, … a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, a land where you shall eat food without scarcity, in which you shall not lack anything…” (Deuteronomy 8:7-9).
Though we’ve had a few “wilderness” years, I see now that God had already prepared a land for us without scarcity, without lack. Now I want to enjoy each day without trying to reproduce good times from the past, but live instead in joyful anticipation of the new wonders God has hidden for me to discover and experience. How about you?
Great food for thought, especially as we clear away all the dead debris of winter to make room for our newly- sprouting Spring bulbs. Thanks!