I sat down tonight to write with one word in mind. Sometimes the Lord brings a verse to my attention, sometimes an idea, sometimes a certain concept, sometimes just a word.
I was driving back to Jackson from out of town recently and was listening to music when I noticed the word "delight" in the song I was singing along to. I remember exactly where I was because the moment was unexpectedly profound. I was singing pretty casually, not really even paying that much attention to the words, but that word struck me. I knew it was my word for this season. As the dust settles from the newness of my job and the busyness of working and studying, it is easy for the day-to-day happenings of life to become seemingly mundane. However, in that moment in my beloved Honda Accord, which is very possibly the place where the Lord has spoken to me the most, he reminded me to lift my eyes. If you ever played basketball and you're anything like me, you know how hard it is to take your eyes off the ball you're dribbling to look for your open teammates. In the same way, it's not easy for me to lift my eyes from the day-to-day tasks I'm dribbling. But just like good point guards must look down the court and keep dribbling, we must look up and around from our tasks at hand so that we do not miss the opportunity to delight in the gifts the Lord has given. Life with the Lord is far from mundane.
When I noticed that word, I also thought about a couple of verses. There's one in Psalms that says to delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. I believe that to delight in the Lord is to find an opportunity for thankfulness in every situation, to live with a sense of wonder and awe because the God of the universe loves us and knows us, and we can know him. There's another verse in Zephaniah that says the Lord will take great delight in you. So not only does the Lord want us to delight in him, he actually delights in us, his children. Have you ever had a friend who you knew you really enjoyed being around, but you weren't sure if they felt the same way about you? If you and that friend ever talked about how much you both enjoyed being friends, didn't it just make your heart happy to know that your friend felt the same way you felt? This is the joy of delighting in the Lord. He knows us and loves us and actually enjoys doing life with us. And what joy he experiences when his children love him back!
This moment in the car with the Lord was, in a way, a challenge to keep my head up and my eyes open, to take delight in even the seemingly insignificant. It was also a sweet reminder that I serve a God who knows me, loves me, and delights in me. So, my word of the [day, week, month, year, however-long-the-Lord-decides] is delight. Is anyone with me? Let's live in wonder and thankfulness, with our eyes always lifted.
I was driving back to Jackson from out of town recently and was listening to music when I noticed the word "delight" in the song I was singing along to. I remember exactly where I was because the moment was unexpectedly profound. I was singing pretty casually, not really even paying that much attention to the words, but that word struck me. I knew it was my word for this season. As the dust settles from the newness of my job and the busyness of working and studying, it is easy for the day-to-day happenings of life to become seemingly mundane. However, in that moment in my beloved Honda Accord, which is very possibly the place where the Lord has spoken to me the most, he reminded me to lift my eyes. If you ever played basketball and you're anything like me, you know how hard it is to take your eyes off the ball you're dribbling to look for your open teammates. In the same way, it's not easy for me to lift my eyes from the day-to-day tasks I'm dribbling. But just like good point guards must look down the court and keep dribbling, we must look up and around from our tasks at hand so that we do not miss the opportunity to delight in the gifts the Lord has given. Life with the Lord is far from mundane.
When I noticed that word, I also thought about a couple of verses. There's one in Psalms that says to delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. I believe that to delight in the Lord is to find an opportunity for thankfulness in every situation, to live with a sense of wonder and awe because the God of the universe loves us and knows us, and we can know him. There's another verse in Zephaniah that says the Lord will take great delight in you. So not only does the Lord want us to delight in him, he actually delights in us, his children. Have you ever had a friend who you knew you really enjoyed being around, but you weren't sure if they felt the same way about you? If you and that friend ever talked about how much you both enjoyed being friends, didn't it just make your heart happy to know that your friend felt the same way you felt? This is the joy of delighting in the Lord. He knows us and loves us and actually enjoys doing life with us. And what joy he experiences when his children love him back!
This moment in the car with the Lord was, in a way, a challenge to keep my head up and my eyes open, to take delight in even the seemingly insignificant. It was also a sweet reminder that I serve a God who knows me, loves me, and delights in me. So, my word of the [day, week, month, year, however-long-the-Lord-decides] is delight. Is anyone with me? Let's live in wonder and thankfulness, with our eyes always lifted.
