What's the point?
Does anyone remember the time that I drove to Oklahoma by accident? I was in Dallas and instead of coming home to Austin, I ended up in Oklahoma. I know! I know! I have never really been good with directions and especially when I am tired or somewhere new or both. Without a strong navigator or even a thoughtful friend to nudge me, it is easy to get lost and lose sight of my destination.Life feels like that sometimes....The wheels seem to have come off our proverbial family bus this week. People seem stressed out and stretched to maximum capacity. Why is that always the case around here? Even though I feel it too, I am the one who needs to dig deep and find more and extend it to others. I don't know why this frustrates me, the concept is not new, yet I still find myself praying for God to "multiply loaves and fishes" so to speak or more accurately, time and resources. Somebody always needs something, be it time, money, advice, forms, food, rides, you know the routine. I really don't mind serving my family but I never seem to have enough. I never seem to be enough. The more I feed "the beast" the more it wants, and the less I have to give and there I find myself looking for miracles. More wisdom, more time, more energy, and more joy. Sometimes I want to scream "Enough! Everyone stop! Be content and stop! Stop asking, stop needing, just stop!"Sometimes I do scream that!Running helps me!Well, running with my girlfriend helps me. Actually, "Ranting" to my girlfriend helps me but she makes me run.so we go....Running and Ranting:"I am not strong enough! I feel too weak to continue to steer this extremely strong willed ship full of people! Too weak I tell you, to bear up under the pressure. Not to mention my own stuff like demands on my health, my dreams, the things i do for them all day that they don't even see, and God forbid I have something to do other than serve them like Edith Bunker all the live long day!"She reminded me with a simple scripture, a simple sentence, that "When I am weak, then God is strong!" and it stopped my rant.And in that instant I felt clarity and direction. That's how it is when God speaks, even through another human being, a friend, His vessels here on earth. It brings clarity, like the final say or a period at the end of a sentence. God's word is the compass my lost soul looks for that points back to Him.That's it. I can't do it all in my own strength and I know this. He is my help in times of trouble and I need to look to Him to order my steps and point me in the right direction. I need Him to help me and so do my children.I say it all the time, " I am their person, who else are they going to turn to?" I love being their person and most days I am good at it. But when I am not good at it, and don't have all that they need or when my tank is running on empty, I need to point them to Christ because just like me, at some point they will need God to be their person. Not their only person but their main person because He is well able to go above and beyond all we can ever dare think or ask and is more than able to meet all their needs! That's good news! Just knowing that makes my load feel lighter and brings me hope.Monty Watson, our pastor at The Church at Canyon Creek here in Austin said something over and over again in a recent message about strong faith that keeps ringing in my spirit.The point of your life is to point to Christ.I need to rely on God as my source of everything and at the same time show my children how to rely on Him too. Teach them how to call upon the name of the Lord and cast their cares upon Him and see Him move in their lives, answer prayers, calm their storms and meet their needs. The point of my life is not to weary myself being" Uber Mom of the year" and stand tall at the end saying, "Look at me! Look what I did." What good will that do anyone.The point of my life is to point to Christ.To point them... these people of mine... to the One True God who is Well Able.It is as if I am handing them a compass and a guide, strong faith and the truth to cling to, a survival pack if you will so I am not just doing it all for them. It does two things really. It takes the pressure off of me to be their everything, ( which lightens my load a bit) And gives them some of the greatest life skills they can ever obtain.Hopefully, God willing, they will not end up lost and hopeless in the literal or figurative state of... well... Oklahoma.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
Helen H. Lemmel, 1922