April 15, 2008

I like to finish things, to be able to put a check through something on my “to do” list. It makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something. In fact it makes me feel good about myself! But I’ve realized that my “to do” list can become an idol. It’s all too easy to measure the value of my day by what I got done. If I completed certain things, I am happy, if not I’m grumpy.  

In a world that values success and accomplishment it’s so easy to live with a “when –then” mentality. When I finish…, when I accomplish… then! But the then just turns into another when and the cycle starts all over again. 

I keep relearning that the process is more important than the result. And the process isn’t neat and tidy. It’s filled with interruptions and surprises. Yet it is in this very messy process that God often wants to teach me something special. If I focus too much on the end, I may miss out on what He wants to teach me in the now. It helps me to ask, “God, what would you teach me or remind me of today?”  

This empty nest isn’t a season to check off as completed. It goes on and on and I do not want to miss the message of today. I love the way Oswald Chambers expresses it: 

“What is my dream of God’s purpose? His purpose is that I depend on Him and on His power now. . .God is not working towards a particular finish; His end is the process—that I see Him walking no shore in sight, no success, no goal, just the absolute certainty that it is all right because I see Him walking on the sea. It is the process, not the end, which is glorifying to God.” (From My Utmost for His Highest, July 28^th)