Wake up, get ready, kids ready, kids breakfast, commute, school, work, errands, dinner, homework, laundry, housework, bills paid, trash out. Fall into bed. Exhausted.
Your list may or may not resemble this one, but either way you have a list so long that it is never truly completed. It is copied and replicated many times over as each day passes.
Such is life. If you're like me you don't mind your list so much. I mean, your list is your life. I love my job. Love cooking for my family. Love shushing my boys to sleep. Busy-ness does not always equal unhappiness.
But sometimes my list is so busy that I misplace my priorities and don't have time for the one thing that should always be first on my list:
Time with God.
I haven't always been a Christian who devotes daily time to the Lord. In fact, there was a time when I thought I didn't need intentional time with God in prayer and in the Bible. I mean, I grew up in church. I'd read the Bible. Well, I'd read most of it...parts of it. I knew right and wrong. (Did I?)
But friends, daily time with God is so much more than an item I check off my list.
It's sustenance for my soul.
Expansion of my mind.
Awareness of things unseen.
Inhaling the sweetness of glory.
Finding who I am in Jesus.
Communing with my Creator.
See, if we are of Jesus we are not of this world. And, for lack of a better term, my time with the Lord is like a phone call from my home planet. From heaven.
It's my E.T. Phone Home. Without it I am weaker, duller, and out of touch with who I am. I cannot be all that Christ has called me to be without communion with Him.
So this past week, a busy week, full of long work days, grocery store runs (the folks at Bi-Lo and I are on a first name basis), and playing in the yard with my kids I let Him fall off of my list -
a list that He should consume.
And I felt it. In my relationships, routines, and running errands. There was a dullness, a missing joy.
In order for me to experience the fullness of life that Jesus spoke of in John 10:10, I need to be first filled with Him. Because in consuming my list, He consumes my life.
James 4:8 says, "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you."
Daily I want to draw near to Him through prayer, praise, and reading His Word. Whether it's ten minutes or sixty. A verse, a chapter, or an entire book. I need to spend time with my Jesus. Daily.
Because I'm an alien here. And I need my connection with Him to hold strong and fast. Like we sing in "Come Thou Fount":
Let they goodness
Like a tether
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Oh, because Jesus...my Jesus. I cannot be fully myself if I am not filled with Him.
My Jesus,
Gently draw me toward time spent with you. Remind me that you hold all that is true and good and best for me. When I come to the Rock that is higher than I (Psalm 61:2) bless me for it. Show me that time spent with You is not just another box on my list, but is the means through which I have the strength and joy to complete all the rest.
Lord, may it be so.
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