This morning, I did.
After reading my morning's devotion in Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts I realized that God has bestowed upon me a wonderful gift.
Time.
It wasn't that it just fell into my lap. Nor did I just stumble across it. Getting to where I am now was through a decision to follow a calling.
A call to leave behind.
And it took me a year to figure this out.
Our culture and media propagate this notion that the busy life is the full life. If you are at work early, stay beyond midnight, have no time for sleep, friends or family, with the exceptional mid-day drinks, then you are living the high life. The big time.
You have... wait for it... arrived.
Then, why, may I ask, are many of these on acid reducers, antidepressants and 5 hour energy drinks?
God has called me into opposite land:
a calling to leave behind the rat race.
Granted for my Type-A personality, it has been hard to leave unfinished business behind. It has been hard to face forward and start all over again. It is hard to be slow.
It's like God sat me down beside His quiet waters and said "Stay!" He wanted to show me something.
But, my Type-A personality says "Go!!" Do this, and that and faster and better...and... AND!
He's had to find me and sit me back down more times than I'd like to admit.
Alas, seated, my eyes catch hold of the things that bring me joy:
my doggies...
flowers off the rose bush I thought I killed finally blooming...
the golden sun of the skies...
soft green grass like that of a meadow when I'm used to the brown crunch a dried up stalk brings...
my husband home and his jubilance...
and...
AND my heart cultivates new soil; the soil of thankfulness.
Ann Voskamp felt this too.
In her book, One Thousand Gifts, she struggles to keep it all together. As the wife of a farmer and the mother of six children, she wanted and needed more time. Ann soon realized that to enjoy each moment was to cultivate a heart of thankfulness, writing down everything that came to mind; a list of one thousand things.
She, too, soon realized she had the gift of time.
"Giving thanks for one thousand things is ultimately an invitation to slow time down with weight of full attention... I can slow the torrent by being all here."*
I've tested her theory.
And she's right on.
Being thankful does, in fact, allow time to slow;
permitting what brings great joy to illuminate...
transcending the ticking of seconds;
a passport to being fully engaged in the moment where one can actually embody and behold each moment.
To hold time.
Whereas the rat race speeds through each moment, panting, worried, striving for more and more and more.
It has taken me a year to realize that God wanted my time.
He wanted me to lay down the rat race to give me Himself.
Himself in time.
Himself realized through thankfulness.
What a precious gift.
Tears flow as I realize His revelation before my eyes.
My puppy [ok, she's full grown, but she'll always be my pup] darts over with eyes of worry. "What's wrong, Mommy?" [True, I don't have kids, so these are mine].
My heart tilled with seeds of thankfulness embraces this tender moment. "I'm ok, Bear."
And time stood still.
I stand amazed.
Just last night, my husband and I were talking about how we could both use 26 hours in our day. Just 2 more hours and we'd be set.
Truth be told, even at 26 hours we'd probably realize we really needed 28, then 32, then we'd end up wanting just one day to be forever long.
And maybe it is.
A different perspective could be that our entire life is really just one day on God's timeline. That our twenty-four hours is just a cycle which we go through and all of our lives fit into what eternity deems as a day. Kind of spreads out the panic of daily tasks, doesn't it? It will get done when it gets done.
But however eternity calculates the length of a day, God is in charge of time and He will equip us to get us to where we need to go. Wouldn't any loving parent do the same for their child?
"For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose," Philippians 2:3.**
So, find rest in these words and find yourself beside His quiet waters.
For the gift of time is also His gift to you.
AND...
Start your list of things you are thankful for and see what happens.
You might just be amazed.
You might just hold time too.
Today's message was inspired by a gift a dear woman gave to me recently [ya think God is trying to tell me something?]
Check it out here: One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp
http://www.aholyexperience.com/
I've also put the book in my store, posted on the menu on the right-->
References:
*Voskamp, Ann M. One Thousand Gifts. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010. p. 68-69.
**Baker, Warren. The Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible, New International Version. Chattanooga: AMG Publishers, 1996.
Content and Photography © Candice Irion, 2014.
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