for when you need to explore and enjoy, not just survive and advance

Last Thursday afternoon our three boys and I came into the house from the bus stop and planted ourselves in front of the tv to watch the end of a basketball game.  Well, planted might be the wrong word.  Planted tends to insinuate that you are sitting and still.  None of us were sitting, or still.  One was bouncing from one couch to another, another was constantly popping up and down on the chair to the left of the entertainment center, and the other was pacing back and forth between the tv and the coffee table.  Where was I?  Well,  I was everywhere.  In the kitchen, at the counter, in the living room, getting the mail, and finally just hiding on the porch waiting to hear what tone the boys' screams came out in so I would no whether to be elated or upset.  My nerves don't handle close games very well.  In the end, our Tigers pulled it out and Auburn went on to the second round of the tournament and defeated Kansas a few days later to make it to the Sweet Sixteen.

The cheering induced cardiac arrest is not abnormal for sports fans this time of year as Survive and Advance is the mantra for March Madness, but as common and true as that mantra is in the NCAA tournament, it is not one we should carry over into our every day lives.  However, this is one thing I can be quite guilty of.

There is an unintentional cycle in my sharing, but it makes sense seeing that we live in a world that organizes life into seasons.  Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring are just the beginning.  Sports, hunting, hobbies, theater, fashion, cleaning, shopping, all of them, have designated times in which they die down and speed back up, go from preparation to engaging to resting.  If the rest of the world tends to follow these seasonal guidelines, it's no wonder that quite often, or shall I say every year, around this time there are thoughts that go into, need to go into, the idea of not just rushing through to get to the end.  Even though the statement is true, it is not one based in Truth.

When this earth was created and life was placed upon it, survive and advance was not the original design, we were meant to explore and enjoy.

We were given this world and the places in it to call attention to our Creator, to glorify Him in and with His creation that we were given dominion over here on earth.  But, as sin entered the world, and therefore entered the hearts of each of us, that call has been twisted and on the straightaway towards the finish line, the climbing of rungs on the ladder, the checking off of the to dos on the list, and through the keeping of the schedule we constantly lose the enjoyment of it all as the get through it mindset desires to quash the need to savor.  And it is a need.

John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

The desire to just get through it, to live for the weekends, is not of God.  Satan and his constant force desiring to pull us away, uses anything and everything to steal our time and kill our passion in an attempt to destroy our spirit.  But a heart entwined with Christ cannot be destroyed.  For He came to our world to negate everything evil tries to accomplish, he came so that we may have life, and not just life, but life abundant!

To Explore and Enjoy was a basic theme in the beloved church we attended when first moving to Georgia after marriage.  Our pastor regularly taught us and challenged us to constantly wrap our minds around the life we are able to have because of Christ, because we are in Him.  Psalm 16:11 tells us that "You [God] make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore."  Forevermore.  Forever cannot be taken away, forever is something that always remains.

Solomon challenged these thoughts in the book of Ecclesiastes as he time after time purposely set out to test the world's offerings and see if something, anything, could bring about abundant life.  Time after time, he found what he sought after to be nothing more than a vapor, offerings that disappeared in a breath.  At the end of his experiment in using work to fulfill--coincidentally toil being one of the very outcomes of sin entering the world--he was left with this thought, "So I have concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can.  And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God. (Ecclesiastes 3:12)"Work is necessary.  Following projects until completion, climbing ladders, checking off to dos, keeping up with all the events on the calendar is necessary.  We all have a plate full, and while if you analyzed each one some could probably get scraped into the trash, there would still be a variety left to take bites from.  The lesson here is to not just survive and advance, but it is also not just to cancel and re plan, it is to explore and enjoy.

To explore and enjoy is to lay those things out before you that have been placed in your life to do and to revel in the fact that you are not just allowed to do them, but at times called to do them.  To explore and enjoy is to start each day with an 'I get to' mindset instead of an 'I have to' one.  To explore and enjoy is to see the world around you and your purpose in it with a new view, with new eyes brimming with knowledge from your heart that shows just how significant you are in the plans of an Almighty God.  To explore and enjoy is to follow the command set before us in Colossians 3:17 that says, "whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

Maybe you do need to change your schedule a bit, fine tune the offerings of your time, but maybe the act of exploring and enjoying the life you have been given simply means changing your attitude and looking through the new eyes given to us through Christ because, as Paul wrote to Timothy in that first letter, we need to set our hopes on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. I'll be praying for you to start with this day that the Lord has made, beginning to rejoice and be glad in it, and carry that on to each day in the future.  Pray for me.