First Impression
I was one chapter into this new book by author Rachel Balducci and had to stop reading. I was initially taken by her handle on her faith and her humor because both rank high in likeability to me. Anybody that can turn a multi-decade parenting gig into a Christian parenting example has got my vote.
When she introduced “The Duty of the Moment”, I had to look up. And away. Up at the sky. I’m grateful to be outside for this.
Do you ever have the sense that you’re about to learn something big?
The anticipation isn’t so different than a Friday night football kickoff to a rival team. You don’t know what the ending will be, what the end result will show, but it’s going to be something. It’s never not something.
Chapter 1 was the kickoff. I knew it. I could hear the band of angels warming up.
The first and immediate shift
Ya know, God doesn’t really deal in coincidences. He’s the master orchestrator of our circumstances and experiences. “The Duty of the Moment” was just what my attitude and I needed to hear. See, I’d been living out some responsibilities, but my heart wasn’t in it. In fact, my attitude was bad and, probably, my facial expression was, too.
But framing it as temporary and as a job handed to me by God changed everything. The dread faded away.
God cares about it all
We talk about finding a better quality of life, finding balance in the responsibilities we accept and how it’s easy to run ourselves too hard.
Chapter 4 in this book talks about trusting God enough to allow him into the crazy unorganized frenzied parts of our schedules, our personalities, our desires and our hearts. “He cares about it all” it reads.
Does He care that I keep forgetting to get more chicken food? Does He care about how frustrated I get over not having a pair of comfortable black flats? Does He care that the age spots showing up on my arms are making me feel insecure, much like my flabby, white thighs when we went parasailing? Does He care when I’m totally freaked out over the tight schedule I created for myself?
Yes. He does.
He cares about all of it because he cares about us. Don’t we feel a tish sad over the teeniest thing that gives our most loved people any sort of grief? That’s how God responds when we are burdened, too. He feels it because we feel it.
So, let’s talk to him about all of it. Let’s tell him point blank about how we don’t know how we’re going to get everything done. Let’s talk to him about how we spend so much time doing things we feel we must and so little time doing what we love. Because fixing just part of the problem doesn’t solve the problem. But He can and will solve all of our problems from your inside out.
The book is No Such Thing as Ordinary: Unlocking Your Extraordinary Life Through Everyday Encounters With Jesus by Rachel Balducci; it really is nothing like ordinary (Use code DAILY0722 for a discount).
Thanks for your blog, nice to read. Do not stop.