Tripping Over Typeset

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

Matthew 6:34 (MSG)

Welcome friends,

Yesterday my washing machine stopped working with a full load of laundry and water undrained.

It’s now been sitting for 24 hours and I’m not sure how I’m going to get that all wrung out.

Last night sleep didn’t come easy. It wasn’t because I was stewing over my soaking, sloppy clothes but instead the life sloppiness.

Ever been there?

I wasn’t necessarily ‘worrying’ but instead filling up with annoyance and stewing over things that keep sleep from coming?

And that’s when these words hit home, “don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen… God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up…”

Yet my mind drifts that way so easily. “Lord, would you just get them to change? Help them see how screwed up they are and their wrong choices. Life would be better if they would get their act together.”

But, alas, instead God whispers, “Don’t get worked up over them. It’s a drain of emotional energy on you. You can’t change them or make them be different. You’re only churning up yuck.”

The flash picture in my brain goes to my soaking clothes upstairs.

A tub full of thoughts and emotions heavy and limp. I can pull them out, wring them out, but then what? Then what am I to do with them? In the pulling out stage, I get myself soaked and I’m left holding a soggy mess. I find myself worn out through fussing and working to fix it myself.

And here’s the raw truth of it:

They are not mine to fix. That situation is not mine to fix.

My heart is concerned. Yet when concern moves to fret, annoyance and frustration I’m just back in that tub of soaking laundry, trying to spin but getting no where.

So what am I learning in all this?

I can turn my heart to what I can do; and ask myself the hard questions:

• How can I bless this individual? – not change them, or manipulate the situation but bless? Maybe it’s a smile, a kind word, or a metaphorical cup of water.
• How can I move my thoughts from nit-picking to thankfulness? – Philippians 4:8 – Whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable… think about these things.

Today I won’t get all my issues fixed. But I can choose to stop soaking in the slop of frustration.

I can move my attention toward soaking in the good stuff of life —moving my thoughts from worry to worship.

We can’t fix the world but we can fix our focus on the One who holds all things.

My prayer for myself, and maybe you’d like it too, is:

Lord, help me be thankful. Give me a grateful heart and kind thoughts towards those you have made. May I be kind with my words, actions and thoughts. May I be a grace giver in a world where that’s not always given. And may I soak in Your goodness and wring that out on others.

Together, let’s soak up and wring out life-giving love today!

Have a great weekend, friends!

~ Rachel