Being Content

Not A Single Day

When my dad passed away, I quickly learned how many people are uncomfortable with knowing what to say as people grieve. Although there were many encouraging remarks, some of the least helpful things that people said were variations on the theme that “time heals all wounds.” My experience has been that this is untrue. The shock of the loss may fade some, but there are still days that his absence catches me off guard. And there is not a single day that I don’t think of him and miss him. Not a single day.

However, in the midst of the daily recognition that I won’t see him again this side of Heaven, there is also the recognition that the reason why time doesn’t heal this wound is because of the wonderful dad that God blessed me with. The reasons that things hurt deeply is because we care deeply and my dad was purposeful about building a family marked by love. In this,  there is the acknowledgment that although there is much to miss, there is also much for which to be thankful. The only reason I can rightly evaluate what is absent is because I’ve experienced the bountiful gift that having my dad was.

I wish that this allowed me to also say that there is not a single day that I haven’t been filled with thanksgiving for the gifts that God has graciously bestowed upon me. Because of our sinful nature we are more apt to focus on what we don’t have rather than acknowledging the blessings in what we have been given, even if we don’t have it anymore. However, it has reminded me that for the Christian there should not be a single day that is reserved for giving thanks. Instead, gratitude should characterize our lives.

It’s easy to focus on what’s missing, what we don’t have, and our disappointments. However, instead of what’s lacking being the focus of our attention, we would do well to daily acknowledge the blessings that are ours, which we don’t deserve, and we’ve done nothing to earn. In doing so, may there not be a single day that isn’t filled with thanks.

 

Now it’s your turn….

How do you make sure to daily express gratitude for the blessings you’ve been given?

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Hope

Hidden

Growing up, a favorite game of our family was hide-and-seek. There’s a good chance that my dad actually liked the game better than any of the kids because he took great joy in finding new and innovative places to help the hide-ers evade capture. He would lift kids up on top of the refrigerator, and place the cookie jar into their hands, so that they would just seem like part of the decor. He would take off the top of the papasan chair, place a child into the solid base that was underneath, and then place the chair back on top (always making sure the young one could breathe.) I even think once or twice he put us inside the clothes dryer, although I’m sure many people may be aghast at that suggestion.  His creativity seemed to  know no bounds as he looked for places that we could hide.

As illustrated from the above examples, some of my dad’s most effective strategies for hiding us involved placing us into something else. In order to keep the seek-ers from finding the hide-ers, it was helpful if what they saw was the object rather than our faces. They would look right past us, because they presumed that we couldn’t be there. After all – that was a chair, or a dryer – it wasn’t a hiding kid.

This happens to also be a great illustration of what happens when we become believers. As my pastor often reminds us, the word for baptism, literally means “placed into.”  When we have been “baptized into Christ” – we were placed into Him.  He’s covering us; He’s hiding us. Therefore when people see us, they shouldn’t see the cowering child that’s afraid of the future, they should see Christ. They shouldn’t be looking at our insecurities, our fears, and our hang-ups, they should be seeing the beauty and the majesty of our risen Lord.  We are hidden in Him – so that people look right past “us” – because all they see is Christ. This of course isn’t to imply that we have to feign perfection. After all, that’s an act that we can only keep up for so long. Instead, we need to remember that because we are in Him, we have already been granted all we need to live a godly life (2 Peter 1:3), and we need to get busy letting Him use us to make Himself look good.

In the same vein, it’s important for us to remember that when we are hidden in Christ, we are protected. The old hymn, Rock of Ages starts with these seemingly strange words, “Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee.”  It’s a reminder that not only should other people see Christ when they look at us, but we can take confidence that when we are hidden in Him, we are protected. It is as if we are surrounded by the greatest and strongest mountain; no weapon can penetrate it, no foes can surmount it. Nothing can happen to us apart from His plan.

He protects us.

He cover us.

He is our shield.

And just as we want people to look at us and see Christ, we can have confidence in this – because we are hidden in Him, when God looks at us, all He sees is His Son as well.

 

 What do you think? How does being hidden in Christ change how you live?

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