God, your God, has blessed you in everything you have done. He has guarded you in your travels through this immense wilderness. For forty years now, God, your God, has been right here with you. You haven’t lacked one thing (Deuteronomy 2:7, The Message).
I think the tricky part to the Daily Grind is not drowning in the details. It’s easy for us to stare at the empty refrigerator we may or may not be able to fill next week or a full schedule that doesn’t allow us to breathe, and think to ourselves: Shit, we should have kept the day job.
But that would be too near sighted.
Every morning at six Bryan and I have coffee together and set our plan for the day. We are bloodshot and tense and running on five hours of sleep (well, at least I am), but thoroughly enjoying ourselves. Still, enjoying yourself doesn’t always pay the bills or add an extra two hours to the day.
So yeah, the emotional ratio of limitless possibilities to going down in a blaze of glory is constantly fluctuating.
But when I read this the other day I was all, “YES! HE HAS! HE IS! I HAVEN’T!”
And mentally – not literally, as I was still drinking my morning cup of coffee – I jumped to my feet, pumped my fists in the air, and did a few grunting body builder poses. I karate chopped the air, let out a WOO-HOO! and ran a lap around the dining room table – all still mentally, mind you, as I’m not this energetic that early in the morning.
But still, that’s how encouraged my inner Eeyore was after reading this passage in Deuteronomy.
Contextually, it’s a sermon Moses preached before he died and before God led the Israelites across the river into their promised land, the land that was just within their reach for forty long years.
Think of it like a product launch party, or a ribbon cutting ceremony, or a toast at someone’s milestone birthday party. So much led to this moment – joy, tears, sweat, uncertainty – but here we are! We arrived!
And we are not the same as when we left.
My wilderness seems immense right now – though filled with mostly good things. Even so, God is right here with me, and I’m not lacking anything.
So true. I’ve really been trying to live in light of this for the past 7 months now. Each day is a new adventure but God has been faithful in the most unexpected ways. Thank you guys for your love and patience with me. I’m praying for you!
You’re going to love Don Miller’s new book, A Million Miles in Ten Thousand Years. He talks about story, and letting God write the story, and taking chances… Sorta what you guys are doing right now, and what this post is about. Book to be released on 9/29.