It's Not That Deep

I wake up to find my toilet is blocked… Mid-way through my shower and the hot water runs out… I'm offered a great opportunity at the weekend only to find out I'm working all day… my last few shifts were long and tedious, making me miss the days before I had a job… my landlord rings to rudely inform me I have to pay for a plumbing job that wasn't my fault…. another great opportunity arises in the upcoming weeks but oh, of course I'm working again. 

It's so easy to let small thing that are big things to you stress you out and get you upset. Writing it all out makes me realise just how minuscule those 'problems' actually were but at the moment of occurrence, they all managed to get under my skin and affect my mood in one way or another. It takes a lot to alter my mood for the worse so when I do find my mood seriously disturbed I close my eyes and ask God a simple question "What are you trying to tell me" and 9 times out of 10 he convicts me to change something internally that results in a change externally. Very rarely does it have anything to do with what was supposedly upsetting me to begin with but instead it's to do with my attitude and response. 

God said something to me today which only confirmed my view that Christ has a sense of humour. He said, "Adella, It's not that deep" It was funny because I've always expressed my dislike towards that phrase, arguing that nobody can tell you something isn't that deep because if you feel it's deep to you then it's deep - end of. Though I still somewhat stand by my opinion, I'm pretty sure God is exempt from that list. After all He is all-knowing so if He says something isn't deep then I have to accept that I'm in the wrong.

After He told me this, I finished reading chapter two of 'Crazy Love' by Francis Chan and it all sunk in. I could literally die before I even post this and then what would my blocked toilet or my cold shower even matter. I wouldn't even see the weekend to be worried about missing events and long shifts. Our lives are so short when measured against the millions of years the world has actually existed. We're here for a split second to do a job - a God given task to reach others and be ambassadors for Christ so who really has time to be getting stressed over things that don't go our way?

It's  not about us!

So I had to apologise after having my mini selfish moment. Selfish because I took my eyes of the bigger picture to focus on the fact that things weren't going my way. Selfish because my life is actually going pretty great so what right do I have to complain about these tiny things. Selfish because instead of considering the fact that God allowed these small inconveniences to come my way for a reason, I decided that it didn't benefit me and therefore I wasn't going to respond positively.

Maybe if my eyes were fixed on what's important the first paragraph would have gone a little more like this:

I wake up. Praise God… Mid way through my shower the water runs out. Thank God I even have my own place and that I had funds to top up the meter… I was offered a great opportunity this weekend and even though I can't make it I'm grateful that I was considered… My last few shifts were long and tedious but most of the time they're fun and I'm blessed to have gotten a job so easily… My landlord rang to charge me for something that wasn't my fault but it's sorted now thank God… Another opportunity arises and I'm working again but I'm sure if I was really meant to be there it would have worked out that way.

Perspective changes everything. Let's have an eternal perspective so that we don't waste our time being so affected by the little things that God is unable to use us for the big things. 

I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind - Ecclesiastes 1:14

Adella xx