Three months. Never has three months seemed so long and yet so short at the same time. Someone at church came up to me the other day and asked, “Haven’t you left yet?” You have to laugh really and it is good to laugh because over the past three months, I have let stress win more often than not. Maybe others can relate to this. Francis Chan in his book Crazy Love defines stress like this, “Stress says that the things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace toward others, and our tight grip of control.” Stress is basically saying we don’t really trust that God’s got this. Reading that definition was a good wake up call for me. Sometimes, I can get too serious. There are serious things in this world and that should be taken seriously, but nothing warrants thinking my stuff is so important that I act like a crazy person. It also reminds me that surrendering to Christ is an every moment, every day process. Yielding what I hold on to is difficult…but I have a feeling that as I yield…it will be as Paul writes, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free…” (Galatians 5:1). A humorous quote by Emerson that makes me smile because it strikes at this serious flaw in my own life is:
Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
