There is No Spoon

If you have kids, you may have times when you do things with/for them that aren’t what they seem. For example, you might play a “game” that gets them to pick up their toys. Or you might race them upstairs in an effort to actually get them up there w/o a fight.

I’m not talking about reverse psychology though.

My oldest recently had some homework to research animals. I felt pretty confident that the assignment was really about following directions and learning how to research, summarize, articulate, etc. The ‘animals’ aspect was just the excuse.

The older I get, the more I think God does the same thing – these things we deal w/ in life aren’t really real. He creates them (or allows them or just lets us create our own problems but He’s in control) to teach us. I don’t think that’s a mind blowing thought.

But if that’s the case, let’s look at His perspective. The thing we think we’re concerned w/, is a non-issue. (Note: Please don’t read into this that I think cancer or other tragedies are non-issues.) But when we’re worried about the “little” things, things we won’t remember what we were worried about, really God is up there hoping we’ll see the hints to trust Him.

We think the things we do really have the results we think they do. In the physical world, that’s largely true. We mow the grass and it’s shorter. But in the spiritual world, which invades the physical world, the results are more directed by God.

I try to detach my efforts of work from the result of provision. It’s ‘crazy’, I know. But I try to keep myself working hard w/ the tasks given to me and let Him take care of the provision. Relating the two often makes me prideful and/or stressed.

Again, the child-parent relationship is so close to the child-God relationship. He’s got it under-control and can handle things w/o us. But He’s using it to teach us to be responsible, loving, wise, persistent, etc.

I think if we see it from that angle, it not only relieves us of the burden (which is probably the majority of the lesson – trust Him), but it allows us to focus on the true meaning while being joyful, content and glorify Him all the while.

Now this might be “easy for me to say” b/c I don’t have cancer (currently, I had melanoma skin cancer a few years go) or similar, but we’ve all had trials. And I hope it’s “easy for me to say” when I’m going thru my next trial… which is always right around the corner small or large.

So, I’m preaching to my self. Even in the big trials, I hope I can see God’s perspective… I have my doubts.