Day 71, 70 & 69. I have chosen to live intentionally toward the goals, dreams and desires God has placed on my heart for the last 90 days of this year, pressing past fear, excuses and discomfort toward fullness of life as we countdown to 2020. Day 71, 70 & 69: abiding.
Eighteen hour days, concussion care for my daughter, volleyball tournament, dance lessons, friends in crisis, family crisis, middle school crisis, returning from the doctor at 9:30pm, hoping we could finish dinner by 10:30pm, battling some kinda flu, husband out of town, kids crying missing daddy, everyone sleeping through their alarms—it has been that kinda week. Good. Busy. Exhausting. That is why I am reflecting on days 71, 70 & 69 at once because some weeks life happens, and when you can breathe, you listen to your body, curl up under a blanket, sleep while you can and wake up the next day and do it all again.
Often, I look at these crazy weeks and I do not see them as fruitful. Busy and exhausting—yes, but rarely ever do I see them as fruitful. Weeks like this one, my checklist goes unmarked, my goals unmet, and my achieving is stifled. However, if I lean into the God who is with me, near me, and for me, I learn busy weeks of abiding will bear much fruit.
My checklist went unmarked this week, but I was present to a friend who is battling cancer. Yes, my checklist went unmarked this week, but I held a loved one after a friend attempted suicide. My checklist went unmarked this week, but I stood with a friend who decided to leave an abusive relationship. Yes, my checklist went unmarked this week, but I wiped my daughter’s tears when the doctor explained she would miss the rest of the volleyball season. My checklist went unmarked this week, but I held space for a friend who is mourning. Yes, my checklist went unmarked this week, and instead God invited me to abide, to remain with God, with others, in the mess, together in each moment. My checklist went unmarked this week, but what a good, busy, crazy, exhausting, fruitful week it has been as I have chosen to surrender my checklist and instead, abide.
ACTION STEPS: Some days, weeks and seasons do not go as we had planned. Yet, in the midst of them, God invites us to abide. In the tumult, God shows up in ways we cannot imagine. How are things between you and God right now? Are you struggling? Wherever you may be, God meets you exactly where you are. God draws near to you in your questions, doubts, fears, confusion and frustrations, just as God is near in the joys and confidences. Where do you need help abiding in Christ? Talk to God about it.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
John 15:5
