Perspective

"I have come that they might have life and might have it abundantly." --Jesus

A Dream Within a Dream. Ravello, 2019

As a child, then as young man, I had very little idea of what I was going to do for a living, but whatever it was, I knew it would be legendary.  It was very clear to me that I would be very successful in whatever field was blessed enough to reap my obvious talents and charm.  

Then I received, "The Call" and my delusions of grandeur came crashing down around me like a house of cards. 

My wife (pictured above) called me to let me know that she was stranded in our twenty-year old Yukon on a residential street in a neighboring city.  At that moment, and in many other moments leading up to it, I realized that I wasn't really living the life I expected.  In fact, in many ways, my life was living me. 

Instead of realizing the blessings of family, good health, and a beautiful and talented wife, I had become consumed by the challenges of work, doing the dishes, caring for a family and fixing old cars.  Things break down...not only cars, but relationships at work and old plumbing.  These broken things have to be fixed. So, I had the Yukon towed to a friend and the two of us worked all day putting in a new fuel pump.  The car was fixed but in the process, the challenges of life were placed ahead of the blessings of God. A day with the family became a day with the Yukon.  I did spend some time with a good friend, but intstead of feeling abundant, I just felt tired.

It was an easy place to get to, but not a place I want to stay.  Maybe, like author Stephen Covey wrote so well, I have been caught in an, "activity trap" and I just need to put my ladder against another wall. 

There will always be something else to do on my list.  However, I don't have to neglect God's blessings just because the Yukon broke down and a passerby stopped to let me know I was blocking the street. No. I can choose to celebrate the fact that my wife and son were okay. And I can choose to celebrate the fact that God's Son came to fill up our lives with the good stuff...because those things are there, too, even when we get, "The Call".  It is just a matter of perspective. 

Church Stopping: Less doing. More Being.