“Hereafter you will consider that everything that happens to you , both great and small, is sent by God to help you in your warfare. He alone knows what is necessary for you and what you need at the moment: adversity and prosperity, temptation and fall. Nothing happens accidentally or in such a way that you cannot learn from it; you must understand this at once, for this is how your trust grows in the Lord whom you have chosen to follow.”
Way of the Ascetics by Tito Colliander
Long ago, John F. Kennedy proposed that America go to the moon, not because it was easy but because it would be difficult, and that was the gift:...the opportunity to do something so difficult that she'd be stretched to her limits, feel her own possibilities, find something in herself to rejoice in...[T]here were many things one could not control...and that knowledge dictated an ireon-willed insitence that what could be controlled must be brought to perfection.
DW Yarbrough in The Sparrow by Maria Doria Russell
Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Matthew 7:13-14
The more difficult my life has been, the more likely I am to work at making it right. When things are easy, I get slack and stuff goes all wacky. Probably because I begin to focus on myself which is rarely a good thing. Every time I get "all about Beth", I end up making bad decisions, doing something random and stupid, having to backtrack, repent, ask forgiveness, make reparations. Never a fun time.
The thing is, sometimes I look at what seems to be laid out for me to do and I feel like I just can't do it. Then I end up doing all kinds of stupid things just to avoid what looks hard, up to and including sabotaging myself sometimes. How sick is that? It would be so much less complicated to just do whatever it is and get it over with than to go round Robin's barn, making myself miserable in the process of being just plain lazy.
What really bakes my noodle later is when I finally finish jumping through all those stupid flaming hoops I've set up for myself and I do what needed doing in the first place and realize it was simple after all.
So why all the fear? What in the world is my problem?
Hm. What in the world is my problem?
In the world.
That's my problem.
I need to remember that working itself is a prayer, recall the first thing God did after creating Adam and Eve was give them work and purpose: look after the earth and the animals and plants. So, if I am to pray without ceasing, then shouldn't that include words and actions?
But this isn't just about the job but everything. Everything should be done to the glory of God. That is the only work we truly have. That being the case then everything that is not done for His glory is going to be...Harder than it needs to be. Way harder than it would be if I wasn't trying to hold it from Him and not accept His help, that is.
All that just to say to myself, "STOP PROCRASTINATING YA DINGBAT!!!!!!!!!!"
Relevant Verses
1 Thessalonians 5:14-22
Genesis 1:27-28
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