"Every word, every action, every creative act should have as its ultimate intention to bring life to others." (1).
This quote from McManus' book, The Artisan Soul, took me back several weeks to a very memorable day spent with my family...
As I sit in the car with my sisters, we wait for mom to finish her errands. "Well this was a waste of time," I thought, "Why did I say 'yes' to borrowing my car out today? I could be at home already, attending to the 3,251 things that needed to get done?! There is not enough time for me to waste like this!"
Frustration easily mounts in my head as the rush of traffic can be heard through my open window.
And then Janaya sidled next to me, and I relaxed a bit. I hadn’t seen her in awhile, since being at camp. My sweet friend, and sister, whose job is to care for the people that can’t do it for themselves. Janaya, who I always want to encourage, always want to hang out with, and never seem to have enough time to make my intentions a reality.
“I had a long day at work today.” We took a step out of the car and sat down right where we were, on the edge of a concrete planter, and made space for the updates and the hugs while society circled around us. Everything within me was being pulled every which way, but this time together was so rare, we blocked out the hubbub and focused on each other.
As I drove to my own errands, the next stop in my afternoon’s route, I thought, "not a waste of time at all."
There is something about being open to the person God puts in front of us, and putting our own agenda’s aside.
I still needed to leave to be at youth at a certain time, but I could fully use those few minutes by sitting with my friend and listening.
In fact Janaya is a great reminder to me that people are my priority because every single day really is a gift.
It can be so cliché this thought of seize the moment, but when you are with a friend who would love to capture some of the moments back, to go back in time to be with a brother who is no longer here, the glaring truth that life is fleeting is unmistakable.
"All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, He brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times —
so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us." (2).
I will never be able to give Janaya what she truly wants, her brother close by. But I can offer my prayers on her behalf, trusting God to meet her with what she needs.
I ask myself: What can I do in this moment that will make a difference? What can I offer her with what I have right now?
My truest calling as a follower of Jesus is to love God fully and others fully. How much more to show that than giving them my full attention when present with them?
Because this is the place where our lives and God’s purposes intersect.
This one life we’ve been given. How will we use it today?
It doesn’t have to be with thousands of “followers”; it has to be right here in our core.
With our Creator hearing our prayers, knowing our heart churnings, feeling our feelings right along with us.
It is here in our innermost places that we relish that we are made as image bearers and we live out of that creative genius. It is here that we make our mark on the world— one conversation, one help, one prayer at a time.
There is no show here. Just an earnest desire to be my best and live my best so God will say I used this one life well.
Loving my actual life...
Loving. Really loving it? I think I do. And yet there are a million distractions from the goodness.
My life. Not her life. Or your life. But mine.
Circumstances and details that have been assigned to me by chance, by choice on my part or others’, by God’s design.
Sometimes it’s difficult to distinguish between those, but it really doesn’t matter. It’s the only life I have and I’m the only one who can claim it as my own.
It’s a coming to terms with and embracing.
Actual. Not virtual. Not imagined. Not dreamed of. The circumstances or details are not as I would wish or design if I were in charge.
But that’s part of the exercise, right? The loving within what is, rather than what I wish would be.
So I look at them honestly, these parts that make up my every day, and I am grateful for the good. And I even work to be grateful for the difficult because I know, though painful, it can shape me for the better. So in all things I give thanks.
Life. That breathing, pulsing, beating portion of time that I am here. Because I guess that is what defines a life in part, the time you are here and what happens in it.
And Jesus, who says He is “the life,” beckons me to come to Him for more. Because just as He says He is the life, He says, “Come.”
All you tired, overwhelmed people, come and I will give you rest (3).
So yes, I want to love these days, hours, minutes I have here and I want to draw closer to the One who breathes life in.
Because I want to know I’ve done my best with this one life when I pass from it to the next.
1. McManus, Erwin Raphael. 2015. The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life Into a Work of Art. New York: Harper Collins, 109.
2. Peterson, Eugene H. The Message Bible: Leather-look. Message, 2007, 2 Cor. 1:3-4
3. Peterson, Eugene H. The Message Bible: Leather-look. Message, 2007, Matthew 11:28.
