One More

“If you stare at something for too long it becomes blurry.” ~Iyhia McMichael

I often say to my softball players, “What happens if you stare at the ball too long?” and with confused faces they look at me and shrug their shoulders. I tell them,”If you stare at the ball too long, it becomes blurry.” I believe the same thing happens when we focus too much on the “things” we want. We often become so fixated on how it should be, or how we think it should happen, that we lose sight of what really is. As I was talking to my best friend last week, I realized how ungrateful I had been with what God has blessed me with. I prayed hard to get the financial assistance I needed to finish school, and he answered my prayer. I prayed hard to make RECOLORED a reality, and he answered my prayer, but I still longed for something more. I keep thinking that if I get one more “thing” then I will be completely satisfied. But, when I reflected on my past, all the “things” that I longed for never fully brought me the joy I hoped. So, eventually, I started longing for the next “thing” and it started to become a pattern. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t ask God for “things”, but its the intensity of our focus on the “thing” that makes it become our God. I realized that I started to long for the “things” God created rather than the creator himself.

“Why be like the pagans who are so deeply concerned about these things? Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs, and he will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern.” Mathew 6:33-34 (NLT)

In the book of Mathew Jesus reminds us that all we need lies in him. By daily communing with him, we find our purpose for each day. Oftentimes, we work backwards and take our ideas to God and ask him to bless them, and we become frustrated when “things” do not work out.  When we can re-focus  our intensity on our relationship with God, he will make what is important to him important to us. Our lives and the work we do will become the perfect reflection of God’s heartbeat for us.  We have to strive to be in such a place of peace that whether our prayers are answered or not, whether we got the “things” we hoped for  or not, we will still praise God and stand under his waterfall of grace, and with tears in our eyes we can thank him for loving us enough to close doors, change our desires, and say “no” when we pray.

#REBORN#RENEWED#RECOLORED