Reason #577
I took Benadryl tonight. Thank goodness I didn't opt for two or I would have to take tomorrow off. There's something about Benadryl that makes me unnecessarily exhausted and a little silly. And so I have had to fight to keep my eyes open for the past few hours, but my brain is long gone. Therefore, if this blog makes no sense, if it full of grammatical errors and incomplete thoughts, it's the medicine doing the talking. We'll see what happens here...
I taught our Sunday school class by myself yesterday. I somehow scored the most multi-talented husband ever, so Aaron had to attend a worship meeting during the Sunday school hour. If you've ever taught anything before, you know what a challenge it can be to teach. For at least 45 minutes, you have to come up with things to say, thoughts to share, questions to ask, and attempt to make it interesting and applicable as well as enjoyable. I may hit two or three of those things each time, which is why I'm glad to always have someone else to teach with. Plus, getting people to talk in a large group setting can be like pulling teeth, and there's nothing that will make you sweat, or feel completely vulnerable and awkward, than having 40 eyes staring straight at you for quite a few painful moments of uncomfortable silence.
Well, yesterday's lesson was a tough one. One of those that doesn't give you a whole lot to discuss. We are studying Ecclesiastes, which has a slightly depressing undertone. Anyway, after reading Radical and getting punched in the stomach with hard truths each week, we were far from creating a light-hearted atmosphere, as the particular chapter we covered in Ecclesiastes reminded us that we are all going to die. I don't know about you, but death isn't the most exciting subject to discuss. For one, we're all still alive. None of us know what death is like, so we can't really speak from personal experience. Secondly, death is depressing and sad and so there's really not much to say about it. Solomon reminds us that none of us will make it out of this world alive, and that one day we'll all die. No matter how good or how bad we are, we will die. Sorry, but that's just life... or death. Anyway, after reminding us that in the end everything ends, Solomon challenges us to enjoy the life that we do have. After all, God has given us life so that we can enjoy our time on earth. If He didn't want us to exist, He wouldn't have made us, right? And the interesting thing about this whole living and dying concept is that we realize everything really is temporary. Because one day we won't eat food anymore. One day, we won't work anymore. One day, we won't have the relationships we currently have. We won't have our pets, our homes, our possessions, even our bodies. One day, everything will change and so we should enjoy these things while we have them.
One of the girls brought up the fact that so often the things we have start out as blessings and then after a while, we see them as burdens. We pray and ask for them, only to enjoy them for a while and complain about them forever. I'm sure you've been there, too. The Lord gave you some good to enjoy, like a job, and three weeks in you were already thinking about your next career move. Two months in you were spending your evenings venting your frustrations about this job that you were so excited to get. Or maybe it was a house. But one year later, your friend got a new house, and now you see all that's wrong with yours, everything you'd like to change. And so we forget how to enjoy things for the long run because we take them for granted, always asking God for something different when we get tired, frustrated, or bored with what we have. Yet why would God give us more if every initial blessings is perceived later as a burden? If we can't enjoy what we have when we have it, it makes no sense that He should give us more things to eventually not enjoy.
This was like another bucket of cold water thrown in my face, friends. Another punch in the stomach to make me realize how guilty I am of doing such things. Yet when I stop to think about it, I would be devastated if I were to lose these things. If I lost my job, my house, Scout, my family, my marriage, my health, my car, my money - any of it, I'd be crushed. And so I really had to repent. To ask for forgiveness for taking everything for granted and for having a heart that is not grateful. Because God has given me so much to enjoy, and when I realize that one day I will no longer have these things, it makes them all the more sweet. And even though death is sad and depressing and no one likes to think about it, much less losing all of their things, the joy is knowing that when we trade this life in for the one to come, we are trading up. It only gets better here. And so I praise the Lord for that. For all that He has given me in there here and now. And I am grateful that when it is all gone, it will be even better than the best of what I think I have. Those really good days, those days where everything goes right and we wouldn't change a thing, will pail in comparison when we are standing before His throne. And so until then, we enter His courts with thanksgiving. We approach Him with praise and gratitude, and we thank the Lord that He has given us so many sweet blessings to enjoy in this short life we have on earth.
#577 - For giving me a life full of things to enjoy.
"Acknowledge that the Lord is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name." - Psalm 100:3-4
I taught our Sunday school class by myself yesterday. I somehow scored the most multi-talented husband ever, so Aaron had to attend a worship meeting during the Sunday school hour. If you've ever taught anything before, you know what a challenge it can be to teach. For at least 45 minutes, you have to come up with things to say, thoughts to share, questions to ask, and attempt to make it interesting and applicable as well as enjoyable. I may hit two or three of those things each time, which is why I'm glad to always have someone else to teach with. Plus, getting people to talk in a large group setting can be like pulling teeth, and there's nothing that will make you sweat, or feel completely vulnerable and awkward, than having 40 eyes staring straight at you for quite a few painful moments of uncomfortable silence.
Well, yesterday's lesson was a tough one. One of those that doesn't give you a whole lot to discuss. We are studying Ecclesiastes, which has a slightly depressing undertone. Anyway, after reading Radical and getting punched in the stomach with hard truths each week, we were far from creating a light-hearted atmosphere, as the particular chapter we covered in Ecclesiastes reminded us that we are all going to die. I don't know about you, but death isn't the most exciting subject to discuss. For one, we're all still alive. None of us know what death is like, so we can't really speak from personal experience. Secondly, death is depressing and sad and so there's really not much to say about it. Solomon reminds us that none of us will make it out of this world alive, and that one day we'll all die. No matter how good or how bad we are, we will die. Sorry, but that's just life... or death. Anyway, after reminding us that in the end everything ends, Solomon challenges us to enjoy the life that we do have. After all, God has given us life so that we can enjoy our time on earth. If He didn't want us to exist, He wouldn't have made us, right? And the interesting thing about this whole living and dying concept is that we realize everything really is temporary. Because one day we won't eat food anymore. One day, we won't work anymore. One day, we won't have the relationships we currently have. We won't have our pets, our homes, our possessions, even our bodies. One day, everything will change and so we should enjoy these things while we have them.
One of the girls brought up the fact that so often the things we have start out as blessings and then after a while, we see them as burdens. We pray and ask for them, only to enjoy them for a while and complain about them forever. I'm sure you've been there, too. The Lord gave you some good to enjoy, like a job, and three weeks in you were already thinking about your next career move. Two months in you were spending your evenings venting your frustrations about this job that you were so excited to get. Or maybe it was a house. But one year later, your friend got a new house, and now you see all that's wrong with yours, everything you'd like to change. And so we forget how to enjoy things for the long run because we take them for granted, always asking God for something different when we get tired, frustrated, or bored with what we have. Yet why would God give us more if every initial blessings is perceived later as a burden? If we can't enjoy what we have when we have it, it makes no sense that He should give us more things to eventually not enjoy.
This was like another bucket of cold water thrown in my face, friends. Another punch in the stomach to make me realize how guilty I am of doing such things. Yet when I stop to think about it, I would be devastated if I were to lose these things. If I lost my job, my house, Scout, my family, my marriage, my health, my car, my money - any of it, I'd be crushed. And so I really had to repent. To ask for forgiveness for taking everything for granted and for having a heart that is not grateful. Because God has given me so much to enjoy, and when I realize that one day I will no longer have these things, it makes them all the more sweet. And even though death is sad and depressing and no one likes to think about it, much less losing all of their things, the joy is knowing that when we trade this life in for the one to come, we are trading up. It only gets better here. And so I praise the Lord for that. For all that He has given me in there here and now. And I am grateful that when it is all gone, it will be even better than the best of what I think I have. Those really good days, those days where everything goes right and we wouldn't change a thing, will pail in comparison when we are standing before His throne. And so until then, we enter His courts with thanksgiving. We approach Him with praise and gratitude, and we thank the Lord that He has given us so many sweet blessings to enjoy in this short life we have on earth.
#577 - For giving me a life full of things to enjoy.
"Acknowledge that the Lord is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name." - Psalm 100:3-4
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