Being Content Growth

A Talkative Spirit

As a writer, I talk to myself a lot. Every time I sit down to write, I think through in my mind what I want to say, how I want to say it, and I craft a the potential “conversation” that I want to have with my readers. It’s a process that works for me for writing, but the trouble is that the talking doesn’t end once I’m now longer in front of the computer screen. Like all of us, I suppose, I’m constantly making internal evaluations about what’s going on around me. I’m planning and creating strategies for how to go about life. Within my mind, I ruminate on this world and create a dialogue with myself on how I’m going to navigate it.

And while this propensity for inner dialgogue may be common, I’m not sure it’s Biblical. The Bible says that I should have a quiet spirit (I Peter 3:4). A quiet spirit is one that’s so content in the Lord that I do not feel the need to figure out for myself how I’m going to go about life. A quiet spirit is one that trust the Lord’s plans and is letting Him lead, not crafting my own initiatives. A quiet spirit so rests in God’s evaluations of this life as is revealed in His Word, that my evaluations are unimportant. In other words, when my spirit is talkative is means that I’m listening to me, and not to Him, and that is indicative of where I’m placing my trust.

May my spirit increasingly be silent, so that may listen to His Spirit more.

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Growth Hope

The Next Right Thing

Years ago a friend of mine passed on some advice that she had received from a friend of hers – instead of worrying about figuring about the big picture, just do the next right thing. If there was a scale for deep thoughts, I’m not sure this would even register, but it has had a profound impact on my life regardless.

You see, I’m a worrier. And like a lot of things, practice has made perfect, and I can worry about pretty much anything if I wanted to. To illustrate this, I like to tell people that I got tension headaches in elementary school. What had me so stressed out at 10 years old, I’ll never know, but for whatever reason, I have a propensity to look at a situation, figure out what could go wrong, and then take it upon myself to think that there’s something I can do to fix it. It took a while for me to realize that not only was this harmful to my health, it was sinful too (Phil. 4:6). So as the years have gone by,  God’s been gracious to help me let go of my worry – to keep things in the eternal perspective of Heaven rather than the temporal nature of this Earth.  But that doesn’t mean that I don’t let it come roaring back sometimes. And in the weirdest of all twists, it’s the little things in life, those insignificant moments of having too much to handle, that cause the most concern.

I write this on a day where my husband woke up sick, the dogs wouldn’t behave, the work was longer than the day, my obligations at church cry loud, and I have laundry and chores to do, and I remember again, that what I have to focus on is just doing the next right thing. I can only do one thing at a time and God doesn’t call me to do anything that without His power, I’m incapable of doing. If there are things I must accomplish today, He will give me the time to do them. If there are situations I must handle, He will provide the solutions. This isn’t an excuse to not work hard, but it does mean that I don’t have to worry. I know that He will direct me to do those things that most honor Him; my job is to focus my eyes on Him, not on all that distracts me.

And so I write this blog. Because in the midst of all the craziness, this was the next right thing.

What’s the next right thing God’s asking of you?

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