Friday, March 26, 2010

I am currently hosting a women's study group in my house every week. We're going through the book, "Confessions of a Good Christian Girl," by Tammy Maltby (I highly recommend it). This week's chapter was on the issue of striving - constantly doing more and trying to be better at everything. Yet we feel insignficant and cannot find rest. I shared this with the "good Christian girls" last night.

Let’s take a look at water. It is the universal solvent, and is necessary to sustain all forms of life. We use it to hydrate our bodies, clean our houses, irrigate our crops, water our animals, extinguish our fires and launder our clothes. We find recreation at pools, waterslides, rivers, lakes and beaches by the sea. Water is a coolant in our engines and air conditioning systems. It supplies food directly (fish and seafood) and indirectly. We use it in cooking. Artists use it in watercolors and sculpture, pottery and mosaics. It even carries away our waste.

Yes, every living thing depends on water. Often, in our daily lives we feel like everything depends on US. We’re the soccer mom, cook, employee, committee member, wife, friend, sister, teacher, chauffer, and, of course, good Christian girl. For some of us, we strive to excel in every area, and constantly feel like failures when we can’t deliver. We can’t be the best at every role we play, yet we keep trying, working harder, doing more, setting higher standards—all the while smiling brighter and taking on even more.

Well, we can’t do it all. Tammy Maltby wrote, “We feel inadequate because we are inadequate.” That’s right. God made us inadequate to take on the world and solve every problem and meet every need. That’s His job. Even He doesn’t keep everyone happy all the time, yet we try to. We strive to feel significant because of all we accomplish, all we contribute, all we do. But we can never be more significant than who we are, or rather whose we are. We are significant, important, worthy and special because God is our Maker, Father and Friend. Nothing we do can add to that.

So, going back to the water. I believe God gives each of us various resources—gifts, talents, personality traits, physical and mental abilities, relationships and education. Out of these resources we are to take care of our families, keep ourselves healthy, and minister to others (either in formal ministry or in our day-to-day lives). We are to be responsible citizens, safe drivers and good friends. Most of all, we are to live as children of God. Yet our resources are limited. It’s like having a bucket of water. Water is necessary for so many things, yet we cannot do everything that is needed with what is in our bucket. We may have enough drinking water for a day, or enough water to mop the floor, or maybe water the lawn. But God is the ocean. He can take care of all the necessities around us that we cannot stretch ourselves enough to fill.

So each day we should ask Him how He wants us to spend the resources we have. Maybe reading a book with your child is more important that day than cleaning the window blinds. We don’t have to do both, although we often try. Resting in God doesn’t mean we don’t do anything; it means we only do what is necessary for this time. He will refill our buckets as necessary. It may be the outpouring of His Spirit in a worship service, or the gentle rain of a friend’s encouragement, or the dewy freshness of seeing a scripture passage in a whole new way. And when it seems like life is demanding more than you’ve got to give, and your bucket looks dangerously empty, remember to stand on the promise that God gave: “My grace is sufficient for you,” (2 Corinthians 12:9). That’s true for your bucket as well as everyone else’s.