A K.I.S.S. Kind of Faith for the Everyday
Sometimes life can seem little more than labored attempts of meeting the demands of the everyday. People constantly need us, and there is always work to be done. I know I’m not the only one who has had many days of complete overwhelm … barely able keep one foot in front of the other.
Yet, we also desire to forge on with a faith-walk that richly expresses a life shaped by God’s goodness and grace. How do we triumphantly bear our Kingdom torches, when that aim is obscured by the clamor right in front of us?
Jesus tells us (Matthew 22:37-40):
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
I want to do this Lord, I really do. I mean, this is practically the epitome of the Christian life, right? Love God. Love others.
But sometimes I can make it more complicated than it needs to be. I think it looks like being a loving helpmate, AND being an intentional mom, AND being faithful friend, AND being a disciple spending every day in God’s Word, AND being a servant seeking out ways to be the hands and feet of Jesus, AND, AND, AND … all at the same time, AND all somewhat “successfully” (whatever that means).
This resulted in frustration because I was trying to “do” and “be” more than Jesus ever asked me to.
One day, I read Matthew 6:34:
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
It was not my first time digesting this verse, but it was the first time an idea manifested because of it, that forever changed the way I walked out my days.
Instead of burdening myself with a grander-than-necessary vision of how to live out the Greatest Commandment in the complexity of this worldly existence, what if I were guided by the absolute simplicity of a perspective that considers being fully present to serve & love the people in front of me EACH day, in whatever circumstance I find myself EACH day?
While it might be disconcerting for some to realize that we are not guaranteed tomorrow, this actually freed me as I sought to effectively bear my kingdom torch. Just focus on the day at hand. So now I just ask myself one simple question: