My, My, My or Everything?
“In my frenetic pace of life, I’ve forgotten His presence. It’s a choice in those times to cry out to the God who lives within me, asking Him to lift my head. This beautiful, inhabiting God breathes encouragement into me, reminding me that I am His child, worthy of His sacrifice. I don’t need to wallow in a place of stress because He understands. He is Emmanuel, God with us, and He sees us–an astonishing fact. Simply meditating there will change our growth patterns forever.
…May our thoughts be consumed with our awe-worthy God. And may those thoughts translate into astonishment-based living, where we live to make much of God and less of us.”
Mary DeMuth, Everything (pg. 12-13)
How Easily I Forget
I forgot God’s presence on Monday.
The quiche I made for the ladies I’d invited over for lunch, which normally takes only 25 minutes to bake, took a full 50 minutes.
At first, I thought I’d be late for chapel. Then I realized I was going to miss chapel. Ultimately, I barely made it to my first class with a few seconds to spare. (And the quiche still didn’t look right!)
I was ready for class, having prepared a detailed PowerPoint the night before. Except I couldn’t log on to the network. I stalled. Babbled. Stalled some more. Babbled some more.
Gave up on technology. Used the white board and dying Expo markers.
Wallowed deeply in “a place of stress.” Multiple places of stress, actually. (Typical over-achiever!)
Why?
My, My, My
Because it was all about me.
Disbelief about my quiche.
Frustration over my tardiness.
Betrayal by my computer.
Impressing (ah, the true heart of the matter!) my students.
A Little Jesus Christ Overlay
In Chapter 1, Mary points out that “like Brother Lawrence, the monk who joyfully washed dishes with Jesus beside him, we can practice His presence every single moment.”
I know God is with me. I don’t doubt it for even a moment.
So why do I forget? Why do I live as if it’s all about me? As if I am all I’ve got?
I heard Tom Sine speak over a quarter-of-a-century ago. He pointed out that most Christians “live the all-American lifestyle with a little Jesus Christ overlay.”
I snickered at “a little Jesus Christ overlay.” Who would do something so silly? Live the way the world lives instead of living Life superabundantly?
Me.
My vs. Everything
I forget it’s not
- my quiche.
- my tardiness.
- my computer.
- my PowerPoint.
- my students.
They’re all His.
Everything is His.
I’m not sharing my life with Him; my life is in Him. (Click to Tweet this.)
So what will I choose today?
My…my…my…?
Or Everything with Him?
Your Turn:
- In what situations do you find it easiest to remember that you’re “washing dishes with Jesus beside you”?
- In what situations are you most likely to forget it’s not about you?
- Anything else on your heart!
When preparing to sing solos at church I catch myself getting too concerned about me messing up and I have stop and remind myself that it is not about me, it is about what God has called me to do in His Son’s name. Recently on a Sunday morning during my morning quiet time before I was going to sing at church, I was having a near meltdown from fear of messing up and a scripture (1 Peter 4:11) jumped off the page at me and I felt God speak to my heart letting me know that He would not only be singing through me, but He would be standing right beside me while I sang for His glory, serving others. I felt so at peace after that. It was amazing! If I could only remember that it is not about me, but all about Him before I reach the point of meltdown.
What an awesome way to keep accounted for. Thank you so much for your blog!
Answer to your question:
I always forget that it’s not about me. It’s about Jesus Christ. I am however now making the attempt to know he walks beside me!
Great post Cheri! I love seeing how everyone gets something different from Mary’s book.
And to answer your question, I usually forget it’s not about me when I’m at work…very hard to keep Him at my side washing dishes with me!
I can be a bit more task oriented than people oriented … I consciously remind myself to be present with the people around me and not just “use” them to get on to my next thing. Not always easy, though!
The “my-s” of life are quite something. I tend to lovingly say to myself, “get your BIG head out of the way.” It reminds me that I should never get so busy with my stuff that I forget to focus on the LORD.
I hope I forget it’s about me as I write. Though sometimes I get bogged down in the marketing aspect of publishing which feels entirely about me. Great post.
So timely, so very timely.