Monday, February 22, 2010

Finding our Being

Do you ever feel like your life is just happening, and you are going through it, but you somehow can't seem to get a grasp around it? That's kind of how I've been feeling lately. I really long to sit and read more, or post more, or just be still, but it seems like most of my "free" moments get sucked into cleaning or organizing or playing or just trying to have a conversation with a friend for even just a moment.

Last night I was challenged by this verse:

"In him, we live, move, and have our being." (Acts 17:28)

Even though I've known Christ for many years, most times, I don't feel like I'm living, moving, and having my being in Christ. I know I truly am in Him, but most of the time, I'm just "living, moving, and being". So, where in the craziness of the day, month, year, LIFE, do I find my way to have regular life while somehow I'm resting in Him? Even sitting down to post about this, I am confronted with feeling guilty for taking a moment to ponder rather than doing something else more "pressing".

Sometimes it seems impossible to find this life "in Christ", and yet, I know that this is where I find true rest, peace, and joy. All the things that we would say we want our life to be, and yet, we struggle so to have them. I think the groping to find Him in the midst of pain, hardship, trial, and just mundane life, is just what He wants us to do. A sacrifice of praise isn't a "sacrifice" if it comes out without pain or struggle. It's pretty easy to trust Him or praise Him when everything is going well, or when we feel really close to Him. Or when life is just working out the way we hoped it had. But, when we choose to push past the hardships of life, and choose to have life "in Him" is where we find rest for our souls.

The verses right before this one in Acts says,

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us." (Acts 17:24-27)

I hope that you will join me today, and choose to live, move, and have your being, in Him. Whatever it is your facing; maybe it's fear about the future, or regretting the past, or even day to day anxieties that can feel overwhelming, but whatever it is, let's move past being in us, and choose to know Christ in the midst of our lives. I want to be able to know Him in my living, moving, and having my being. And He truly "is not far from each one of us."

2 comments:

Heather Swindall said...

Thanks for writing this Melissa, I'm at a time that I can really use it! Love you all!

Southern Gal said...

Love that praise song that quotes that verse in Acts. I'm singing it in my heart now.