Choose a Full Life

There are no guarantees how your life story will read. You hold on to hope, and you trust that God has a better script for your life than you could write on your own. Married or not, childless or with a house full of little feet, at the top of your field or amazingly average- God's blessing is on your life because the gospel of Jesus is real and true. And if it is true indeed, then you refuse to dull your heart, because being half alive is not what you were made for. You choose to live from the inside out, offering yourself in a hundred good ways to the people God brings your way. Anyone will tell you this path is harder in a heartbeat. But it leads to a place worth going, and this makes all the difference. To live in the rarer air of the in-between- neither shutting down desire nor demanding it be fulfilled in a particular way- is your own heart's journey in what it means to trust God with your life. The disease to be feared is not, as our culture claims, that somehow we won't get anywhere or end up with the life we want. The real fear is that you and I will go through life holding back the life God has put in us, playing it safe. We'll miss giving it away to those around us. The pain of unmet desires can actually enlarge our hearts. The more we let ourselves long for life, even though it brings the ache of incompleteness, the more we are actually able to savor the joy that comes our way. This paradox surprises me on a daily basis. More and more, I recognize this kind of pain for what it is- a ticket to becoming a woman so thoroughly alive that she is afraid of almost nothing.- Rinehart

For those that are discouraged with the way the Lord is writing your particular story, remember the words from Proverbs 3:5-12. I chose to use the Message translation this morning because I think it points us in the right direction when we realize the hope we have in trusting our Savior.

Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
don't try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
he's the one who will keep you on track.
Don't assume that you know it all.
Run to God! Run from evil!
Your body will glow with health,
your very bones will vibrate with life!
Honor God with everything you own;
give him the first and the best.
Your barns will burst,
your wine vats will brim over.
But don't, dear friend, resent God's discipline;
don't sulk under his loving correction.
It's the child he loves that God corrects;
a father's delight is behind all this.

-Proverbs 3:5-12