One afternoon last fall a friend and I pulled into our driveway after spending the morning out at the farm. She smiled and said with all sincerity “I love the way your house looks so lived-in.” I laughed and said “I guess that is one way to put it." Maybe she was referring to the muddy boots piled on the porch or all the toys spread across the yard or maybe it was the vegetables growing in our flower beds and the chicken houses in our backyard. I am guessing it was all these features combined that brought about her honest evaluation. The perfectionist and proud side of me wanted to defend the chaotic state of my house but then I realized, “wait a second, we do live here…it’s not so bad for things to look like we do.”
Signs of life. Evidence that we are truly alive.
“In Him we live and move and have our being…” Acts 17:28
Maybe you are like me and you constantly find yourself cleaning up the same thing again and again. Or maybe you keep asking, “Didn’t I just sweep this floor?” Or maybe you obsessively rearrange and reorganize in hopes that all this stuff can somehow fit into this tiny house. I have to admit I LOVE those 15 minutes after I finish cleaning when my house looks its best and everything is in its place but the reality is by the end of that same day those clean counters and sparkling floors are long gone. There is mud at the front door, coats piled high on the shoe box, drawings everywhere, and toys spread across the floor, and usually there is a think layer of toddler slime on the table and the chairs. Life simply must go on.
Wake up, cook breakfast, fill the sink with dishes, wash the dishes, do school, do laundry, play toys, cook lunch, fill the sink, wrestle kiddos into their beds, take a breath, remember the One who is our LIFE, fix snacks, read books, draw pictures, cook dinner, fill the sink to overflowing, wash dishes, wash the kiddos, snuggle up, read the Book of Life, say our prayers, good night. Wake up and repeat.
Sometimes I can’t get my brain to stay focused on what truly matters. I am often consumed with all the things that are temporary and passing away. I am too often distracted by all the busyness. But in those moments when I can see with spiritual eyes the mess around me brings joy instead of frustration. When I can see with spiritual eyes gooey hands and messy mouths make me smile instead of sigh. When I can see with spiritual eyes I am able to find beauty in the mundane things that fill these days. In those moments my heart overflows with gratitude because I realize I AM ALIVE.
“But because of His great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved…” Ephesians 2:4-5
Not just alive in the physical but my heart has actually come alive! It is not enough just to breath in and out and be able to walk and talk and think. NO just living is not necessarily being ALIVE. Just look around you. There are so many people who go through the motions each day but as they lay down to sleep there is no hope beyond this temporal place, there is no source of strength and joy to sustain them through every moment, there is no LIFE within their hearts. They are surviving but not able to truly THRIVE and experience the abundant life that can only be found in Christ.
“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the FULL…” John 10:10
There was a woman at the well. She was there just to get some water, probably to take it home and cook yet another meal or maybe to wash yet another pile of dirty clothes. She came to that same place almost every day. Today was just like all the others but HE was there. Jesus was there waiting for her, he was there to give her LIFE.
In the midst of her daily chores He spoke straight to the deepest places of her heart, he made her recognize that her “need” for water was much deeper than she realized. She was dead and He alone could make her alive.
“Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life…” John 4:14
Have I found that place? Have I taken a drink? Has it become in me a spring that wells up to eternal life?
Some days I’m not sure. Some days I have doubts. These days I have been desperate in seeking His Spirit because I know that He alone can make me alive.
I pray that wherever you are and whatever you are doing, you will find yourself barefoot and desperately seeking to be made ALIVE.
May all of our lives be lived-in…
