Mikki's Blog - Living in the Grace and Love of God » Fullness of life

Seize the Day!

Mikki — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:26:12 +0000

A few years ago the movie "Dead Poets Society" resurrected a Latin phrase, Carpe Diem, or Seize the Day, an exhortation to live life to the fullest, getting the most out of each individual day.

I thought of that phrase this morning as I read Ecclesiastes 9. Ecclesiastes is not on the top of my reading list, but I found myself there today. Throughout the book, Solomon struggles with issues like the vanity and futility of life. Not exactly the book you turn to in order to be encouraged. Yet that is what I found in this passage!

Solomon’s journey had taken him through seasons of pursuing God wholeheartedly to times of seeking his own paths. His wrong choices left him empty, broken, and dis.heart.ened. He had lost heart.

Solomon had great wisdom, wealth, and every whim of his heart was his, yet his long season of pursuing selfish desires had left him disillusioned. We believe he wrote Ecclesiastes toward the end of his life. He reflected on his life and on life in general and shared what he had learned.

“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun?” … “I communed with my heart, saying, ‘Look, I have attained greatness, and have gained more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My heart has understood great wisdom and knowledge. And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind.” (Ecclesiastes 1:2, 16-17).

Wow, that will stoke your fire, huh?

Chapter nine continues with Solomon’s exploration of how both good and bad come to all, “To him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner,” (vs. 3). And just when you think you want to close the book before you are overcome with discouragement, he offers these truths:

“Go eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart: For God has already accepted your works. Let your garments always be white, and let your head lack no oil. Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life…Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going,” (cheerful, huh?) [verses 7-10].

And yet, there is a simple wisdom for us.

Enjoy the day. We don’t know what will come tomorrow. (Click post title to read entire post)
Be thankful for what you have. Enjoy it.
Know you are accepted by God.
Live in purity.
Pursue the fullness of God.
Find joy in your relationships.
Whatever you do, do it with everything within you!
Life is short. Make it count. Seize the day!!

I love the fact that God doesn’t sugar-coat His Word. He allows us to see the humanness of His servants. The highs, the lows. The victories. The failures. The times when they soar on eagle’s wings and the times when they fall in the pit. We can learn from others’ experiences.

And God whispers to us in every season that He is with us. We can find Him in good days and in bad days. And with Him, we can seize the day and find reason to rejoice, to enjoy, to live life fully, moment by moment, day by day.

Will you seize your day today?

Seize the Day!

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Nothing Less Than Something More

Mikki — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:43:52 +0000

It’s my birthday today. As I get older, birthdays seem more significant. I reflect more. I evaluate my life. I ask questions.

Am I living an authentic life? Am I living in balance? Have I forgotten to listen to my heart or my Lord? Am I enjoying my family, friends, and church community as fully as I should?

I laughingly call myself a recovering workaholic, and as such, these questions are important for me. I have a sense that these same questions are necessary for all of us who live the great American life which exalts busyness above relationships.

In honor of my heart and soul and what I’ve learned in recent years, I took the day off work today. I began the day with a cup of Archers Farm coffee and a bite of almond pound cake and a good conversation with my husband. I drank in both the coffee and the words in my husband’s birthday letter to me.

I received hugs from my husband and youngest son. I enjoyed birthday wishes from my daughter via phone. I await my wishes from my other two sons as it is still early here in Alabama. My husband’s men’s small group sang Happy Birthday to me.

I am filling my soul and spirit with Jesus Culture as I oscillate between reading birthday wishes from friends via Facebook and email and writing this blog.

I look forward to other significant moments today. I plan to read a good book, which is a pleasure of mine, and my husband is taking me to Cracker Barrel for breakfast where I will enjoy the delightful world of carbohydrates.

I feel at peace, and I know that I am not settling for shallowness, either in my relationships or in my dreams.

I want nothing less than something more.

More than living life to check off a to-do list. More than living for the pats on the back that are not linked to relationships that stand the tests of trials and time.

I believe that life is meant to be more. A sacred adventure. A journey of discovery.

I live for more. More fullness of joy. More revelation of God’s love for me. More good conversations. More beautiful sunsets. More meaningful hugs. More laughter. More awareness of the present moment. The heights of the joys. The depths of the sorrows. The richness of life. The beauty of today. The something more.

What about you? Are you living for nothing less than something more?

Nothing Less Than Something More

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Navigating Uncomfortable Waters

Mikki — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 16:10:14 +0000

I like comfort. My personal choice is easy, painless, risk-free, non-confrontational living. God, however, seems quite at peace with asking me to be uncomfortable. In fact, He is somewhat insistent on stretching me, requiring me to face my own unhealed stuff, and gently reminding me that comfort does not always equal His will or purposes in my life or in the life of those I love.

I have found that God is not hesitant to ask me to walk through wilderness, desert, north winds, and mountainous terrains of my soul and spirit. The lessons I have learned as I have faced the uncomfortable places have greatly transformed me.

I think that most of us who are believers in Christ can identify many situations where God has asked us to be uncomfortable. From my salvation on, I can think of times when God’s invitation was to allow Him to change me IN AND THROUGH the uncomfortable place.

Why would God choose to work that way?

God, who knows each of us so intimately, much more than we know our own selves, has a plan for us. Scripture tells us that He intends for us all to be “conformed into the image of His own dear son.” This transformation requires change. Most of us resist change. We cling to what we know, even when it is not working.

Emotional and spiritual discomfort can teach us so much. When I feel uncomfortable emotionally, I ask myself, “What is going on underneath this discomfort? Am I afraid? Angry? Feeling a need to control? A need to rescue when God is not asking me to? What is God saying?”

A truth that has deeply influenced me in the last few years is something my counselor told me once. He said something like, “It’s not your job to make things comfortable for people in your lives but rather to help them mature.” He challenged my mindset and asked me to consider thinking differently. I have found that my default response of trying to fix things for others often was a detriment between them and God, them and their path of maturity, them and their opportunity to grow.

I have learned, most of the time, to back off in the moments when I sense others are struggling to express themselves, or struggling to deal with their stuff, or struggling to be responsible, or… . In other words, I have learned not to rescue others from discomfort. I have learned not to be so uncomfortable with discomfort – mine or others!

While I have learned to back off fixing other people’s discomfort, I have also learned to embrace my own discomfort. I have learned to look at it as a gift when it is a result of God asking me to change or showing me a place where I need healing.

We can opt out of facing our discomfort. God’s heart for us doesn’t include forcing us, having created us with a free will. Yet He invites us to live fully and to allow Him to change us.

So the next time you feel that inner discomfort, ask yourself if it is an invitation from God. Perhaps He is signaling you that your uncomfortable waters are a part of His beautiful plans.

Navigating Uncomfortable Waters

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