For the past five years, without fail, one of my children has needed to move. And also without fail, it has happened at Christmas time. So much so, Jerry and I have jokingly said that we needed to purchase a magnetic sign that would attach to his truck advertising this new-found, or not so new anymore, mission in our life, “We Move At Christmas.”
This year Laura, Andy, and Lucy Drew’s move has proved to be true to form, except that it didn’t happen at Christmas, yet. We shall see. (They are looking to buy a home so a move could happen any day.) One week ago after a mad flurry of planning, packing, and saying goodbye to friends and family in Alabama, they have landed here with us. In what I refer to as a happy challenge of rearranging rooms to having a new purpose—the library is now a nursery, furniture finding new homes in different rooms, and the addition of one more dog (she is the best mannered and most well-behaved of the bunch)—we are all settling in. And Jerry and I wouldn’t have it any other way. To be part of the adventure, part of all of their lives, even though moments can be hard, is a blessing we wouldn’t want to miss.
Especially when, as strange as it seems, per my last blog, my idols are not in order. The trees are not trimmed, the house is NOT sparkling, and the dogs, well, it feels as if the dogs have lost their minds. Lizbeth now barks all the time. Samantha is running around in circles as if she doesn’t know quite what to do, and Kira has jumped head-long into terrible gastrointestinal difficulties. Molly who is Laura, Andy, and Lucy’s dog, true to form, continues to take things one minute, one hour, one day at a time.
And isn’t that what we should all do? Seriously. Not even the next second of our lives is promised to us and so what does it matter in the long run if everything is not the way we like it to be. And yet we don’t act that way. Piling on commitments, accumulating possessions, and working harder, longer, and faster, we try to make our lives better. But at the end of the day, when all the cogs and wheels don’t operate as smoothly as we think they should, we find we are sitting in frustration with not only ourselves, but others, and even God. So would the real idol please stand up?
Looking in the mirror is hard to do. The problem is me. Wanting everything and everyone—even down to the poor unsuspecting people driving next to me on the interstate—to fall in line, and do my subliminal bidding with no questions asked and no second guessing, is at the very root of all my other idols. No matter how I clothe my wants, to look like the sweetest, most reasonable and respectable of wishes, what it boils down to is that I want what I want, when I want it, and how. Apparently, I think I know what’s best, for me and for everyone else. Sadly, though, what it boils down to is I want to be God.
Or do I really want to be Him? Jim Carrey’s character in the movie Bruce Almighty found out that while the allure of having everything his way seemed good at first, when life began to fall apart for not only himself but the rest of humanity, being God was not at all what he imagined. Broken and desperate, he cried out, “Please, I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to be God. I want You to decide what’s right for me. I surrender to Your will!”
Surrender. What does that look like? There really isn’t a quick four-step, how-to guide. If you’re a Christian, you know it is impossible to change without the Lord’s help. And if you’re not a Christian, any four-step course of action would seem trite.
Surrender is a process. It comes when we finally realize we are not and have never been in control of or lord of our own lives. It comes when we realize we fall all too short of taking the bull by the horns. It comes when we realize God’s will—as hard as it may be sometimes—is much better than walking in our own desires, as lovely as they seem in the moment.
So I cannot give you a clear-cut path to surrendering with a “do this, don’t do this” answer. But God does give us a place to start. And I believe it is summed up perfectly in James 4.
“‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ So humble yourselves before God.’ (Ask Him to help. Tell Him we can’t do the impossible, that without Him we are helpless.) ‘Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.’”
-James 4:6-10 NLT. Parenthesis mine.
With the dethronement of self, such freedom—not to sin or to do whatever you want—but the freedom to be who God made you to be, begins to flow in and through your heart.
The beauty in the impossible—in every area of our lives is the Good News of the Gospel—that Jesus has done all this for us, when on the cross, He said, “It is finished.”
Kimberly
Kimberly is the author of the children’s book Mr. Zip and The Capital Z.
Watch the book trailer here.
Excellent wise counsel😊